From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Mon May 2 11:55:19 2005 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 11:55:19 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | May 2 Message-ID: <2b57353d0ad5449c68c529ab78dc916d@stayfreemagazine.org> Howdy. Here are recent highlights from the Stay F---! blog. For images, links, full text and comments, visit http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org DOES WATCHING TV MAKE YOU STUPID? Or just stupid enough to buy Steven Johnson?s Gladwellian premise that ?Watching TV Makes You Smarter?? Johnson?s entire argument, published in last week's New York Times Magazine, rests on the fact that TV programs have grown more complex over time. As evidence, he cites one of his favorite programs -- 24 -- which includes far more characters and intersecting storylines than old-school dramas like Bonanza... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/steven_johnson_.html THIS MONTH IN NEW YORK CITY CRITICAL MASS OR HOW MUCH DOES IT COST THE CITY TO RUN ONE OF THOSE POLICE COPTERS ALL NIGHT? Posted by Matt Ransford The cops here sure are getting all the mileage they can out of their RNC-funded, jacked-up mopeds. Have you seen these things? They?re hilarious. Tonight was my first critical mass ride since last summer, since before the Convention. I had no idea what a sad and intimidating mess it?s become this year because of the whole paranoid round-up in August. Nobody has been spared the ?permit required? hatchet since Cheney, et al, came to town; especially not a bunch of goofs who just want to ride their bikes around without getting clobbered by SUVs and cabs, myself included. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/this_month_in_n.html WHEN SATIRE BECOMES REDUNDANT Posted by Charles Star On the heels of Ted Nugent?s Yes Men-like performance at the NRA convention, the idea that you can mock capitalism by pretending to channel the essence of its most aggresive practitioners takes another hit. In this interview between CNBC?s Larry Kudlow and Steven Milloy of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, the notion that corporations have any responsibility to something larger than themselves is treated with the same disdain that people usually reserve for terrorism or the designated hitter.... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/i_thought_the_y.html EUREKA Posted by Charles Star The latest issue of The New York Review of Books takes on Malcom Gladwell?s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. I didn?t have to read the review. Just reading the title of the book was enough to tell me it was probably a smartly written but insufficiently supported exposition of a clearly erroneous premise.... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/eureka.html (ILLEGAL) STAMP ART Maybe you saw the announcement that Stamps.com is once again offering civilians the opportunity to make their own bona fide postage stamps. The new terms are so restrictive that pretty much anything you?d want to see on a stamp is forbidden, and gaming the system can set you up for a lawsuit. Some pranksters will no doubt try to subvert the Stamps.com policy anyway, but I?d say Michael Hernandez de Luna has a better approach: cut out the middle man. De Luna and other stamp artists have been creating satirical stamps and sending them through the mail for years. In fact, I just got one a few weeks ago on a postcard for a group show that de Luna curated, Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/stamp_art.html MOTHER JONES ON DRUGS The current issue of Mother Jones has a couple of good articles. Those who remain unconvinced of the dangers of mental health screening should read Medicating Aliah, which uses the story of a 13-year-old Texas girl as a hook for a larger story about psychiatric screening. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/mother_jones_on.html From stay.free at verizon.net Fri May 6 16:37:04 2005 From: stay.free at verizon.net (Carrie McLaren) Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 16:37:04 -0400 Subject: New issue of Stay F---! ships on Monday Message-ID: Hello, If you are not yet a subscriber to Stay F---!, now would be a good time to pony up. Why? Because we've got a swell new issue we're preparing for mail out this weekend. Issue #24 includes: * Bill, the founder of flash mobs, looks back on his legacy * How stadiums turn public money into corporate profit (interviews with Andrew Zimbalist and Neil deMause) * A brief history of McDonald's commercials * Restaurant reviews by Eugene Mirman * The Federation of Black Cowboys * Negativland's Mark Hosler interviews a man who makes robots for Christian theme parks * Interview with Jeffrey Meikle, on the cultural history of plastic * Carrie McLaren on the advertising and the idiot consumer (historically) * Lots more! Subscribers start at $6.95 and go up from there. Info at: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/order.html (We accept mail orders, too; send checks or money orders to us at 390 Butler Street, #3, Brooklyn, NY 11217.) Cheap! Good! Stay Free! From stay.free at verizon.net Tue May 17 23:03:15 2005 From: stay.free at verizon.net (Carrie McLaren) Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 23:03:15 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | May 18, 2005 Message-ID: Hello, Here are some recent highlights from our blog, Stay F---! Daily. You can find many more articles, along with with links and images, at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org - - - - - - - - - - - FROM THE STAY F--- ARCHIVES: PRICING THE PRICELESS: THE PERILS OF COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS How much would you pay for a case of chronic bronchitis? What is a hunchback whale worth? And how many poor kids can your company kill per year? Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling discuss the sordid world of cost-benefit analysis. http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/23/priceless.html See also The Costs and Benefits of Setting Yourself on Fire: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/23/activist_corner.html THE CSI EFFECT Posted by Charles Star Thanks to TV cop shows, audiences have unrealistically high expectations of police departments. Investigators are calling it the CSI Effect. It is hard to tell if this is good for the defense or the prosecution: ?[S]ome defense lawyers say CSI and similar shows make jurors rely too heavily on scientific findings and unwilling to accept that those findings can be compromised by human or technical errors.? Prosecutors also have complaints: They say the shows can make it more difficult for them to win convictions in the large majority of cases in which scientific evidence is irrelevant or absent. Now, as ever, all that really matters is having the right lawyer ... but anyone who has been watching TV cop shows knows that already. More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/are_you_gonna_t.html WAL-MART?S LATEST EXPANSION Posted by Charles Star No longer satisfied with being the world?s largest retailer, largest grocer, third largest pharmacy (so far) and (eventually) largest bookseller, Wal-Mart is moving into a new sector: church. In recent years Wal-Mart has hosted dozens of its employees? weddings. My heart breaks for Beverly McCutcheon, who got married at an upstate New York store. She has so internalized Wal-Mart?s draconian labor policy that is almost seems romantic that her friends are economically imprisoned at work during normal wedding hours. Says Ms. McCutcheon, ?We?re a very close family here. All my co-workers are friends. They couldn?t get the day off. So, I brought the wedding to Wal-Mart.? More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/walmarts_latest.html NEW, UPDATED WIZARD PEOPLE The Illegal Art Exhibit is pleased to report that we?ve just received a new, updated version of Wizard People, Dear Readers, Brad Neely?s much-loved (albeit unauthorized) take on the first Harry Potter movie. For those of you in New York, we will be screening the new WP in a couple of weeks: Tues., May 31, 8 pm (sharp!) at Southpaw, Park Slope, Brooklyn (part of our SF! issue #24 release party). I?ve also posted lo-res mp3s of the audio on the Illegal Art website, where you can get ?em for free. More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/new_updated_wiz.html WIRED MAGAZINE ASKS: WHY ARE IQ SCORES RISING AROUND THE GLOBE? Here?s another story by Steven Johnson, the guy who wrote Why Television Makes You Smarter (discussed here earlier). I found the Wired story interesting, but don?t buy it. Even if we accept that IQ is a viable measure of intelligence; that the different IQ tests created over time measure the same quantity; that the tests are implemented objectively, with samples representative of the population at large, there are problems with Johnson?s argument. For one, he oversimplifies the IQ findings (New Scientist, 3/2/02) and overstates his case. As Johnson acknowledges, the significant leaps in IQ scores are found mostly in a certain kind of problem solving: one measuring visuo-spatial relationships. Researchers point to a number of possible explanations for the changes in IQ, but Johnson ignores those. He also ignores all countervailing data (for instance, the fact that the same researchers have found *declining* IQs in industrial nations over the past five years), and attributes all positive changes to media use. More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/watching_televi.html WHAT?S THAT STENCH? Advertising Age reports that Proctor & Gamble has come out with a deodorant for 7-year-old girls. More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/whats_that_sten.html GREAT PIECE ON AMERICA?S SUPPOSED ?LAWSUIT CRISIS? I?ve been wanting to do something on tort reform in Stay Free! for quite some time now, but this Washington Monthly article (October 2004) by Stephanie Mencimer would be hard to match: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.mencimer.html See also the critical discussion of Mencimer?s article: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_02/ 005659.php#more DEMAND IT YOUR WAY AT BURGER KING Posted by Charles Star With all due respect to Flava Flav, sometimes 911 isn?t to blame for being a joke. From Food 911 to Nanny 911, TV has done a pretty good job of redefining ?emergency.? Currently making its way around the internet is this hilarious audio clip of a woman calling 911 because the Burger King drive-through screwed up her order. Just listen to the sense of entitlement in the woman?s voice and wonder at the dispatcher?s ability to remain polite and professional. More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/demand_it_your_.html From stay.free at verizon.net Tue May 31 12:19:45 2005 From: stay.free at verizon.net (Carrie McLaren) Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 12:19:45 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | May 31 Message-ID: Here are more highlights from our blog. You can find images, links, and complete posts at http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org THE FREAKY UNIVERSE OF McDONALD's ADVERTISING A BRIEF HISTORY, WITH VIDEO, BY TIM HARROD Ever since the Earl of Sandwich first ordered meat between two pieces of bread in 1765, entrepreneurs have sold sandwiches to their neighbors who want one. This article is not about those people. Here we will explore the much larger and eviler business of getting them to want the sandwich in the first place. The next step--physically vending a carefully formulated chemical stew that resembles a sandwich--was already explored extensively in Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's famous long-form Jackass http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/24/mcdonalds-commercials.html REMINDER: WIZARD PEOPLE SCREENING TONIGHT IN BROOKLYN Just a quick reminder about the good times to be had at Southpaw tomorrow night. Music before and after the show with DJs Digestif and the Meat Mistress. Free copies of Stay Free! And more! Wizard People screening (aka Stay Free! #24 release party) 8 pm sharp; doors open at 7:30 Southpaw - Tuesday, May 31 125 Fifth Ave. (between Sterling and St. John?s) Park Slope, Brooklyn (718) 230-0236 $5 cover More info: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org PHONE RING TONE SET TO TOP U.K. CHARTS Video killed the radio star, now cell phones have killed the video star. From Business Week: ?A cell-phone ring tone based on the sound of a revving Swedish mo-ped, ?Crazy Frog Axel F,? appeared set to top the British singles chart Sunday, outselling the new single by Coldplay by nearly four to one.? Sounds to me like poetic justice. Now if only someone could base a cell-phone ring on the sound of a toilet flushing... More at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/phone_ring_tone.html IT?S ALL IN YOUR BRAIN, GIRLS The Independent UK published a story last month claiming, ?Anorexia Linked to Brain Defect, Rather Than Social Pressures.? There may be a grain of truth to this. After all, a variant of anorexia preceded the rise of electronic media. But fixating on brain chemistry like this drives me nuts... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/its_all_in_your.html NETS ARENA PLAN STUFFED Posted by Charles Star Yesterday?s New York Post reported that the MTA was going to have open bidding on the Atlantic Yards instead of fake negotiations with Forrest City/Ratner and the Nets. I can?t be too excited, but I?m hoping that this will be a more honest bidding process than the Jets West Side charade... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/nets_arena_plan.html SAY IT LOUD! Posted by Charles Star While looking for a Viva Judaica Foreskin Extender, I came across African Pride Hair Relaxer. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/say_it_loud.html RADIO FREE CLEAR CHANNEL It?s official: even Clear Channel is sick of Clear Channel. The company has set up a fake pirate radio station [taken down, 5/26/05] in Akron, Ohio, which it?s using to hurl insults at other Clear Channel stations. For about a week, Radio Free Ohio has feigned overthrowing Ohio?s media monopoly by bleeding its broadcasts into other Clear Channel stations. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/radio_free_clea.html WAITING TO EXPEL Posted by Charles Star I was reading in yesterday?s Wall Street Journal (copied below the fold) about the ongoing research into treating premature ejaculation as a ?disorder.? In the absence of drugs designed for the purpose, SSRI antidepressants such as Paxil and Zoloft are being prescribed; the new drugs in the pipeline are also SSRIs, even though SSRIs are known to have ?sexual side effects such as damping libido.? So, you will last longer before orgasm, but won?t enjoy it very much... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/waiting_to_expe.html PRODUCT MUSIC TODAY I recently discovered this mind-boggling collection of IT-related corporate anthems. Corporations have used songs to rally employees for decades, of course. Many companies (especially department stores and railroad companies) had in-house musical groups in the 1920s... and industrial musicals were the rage among managers, who used them to recruit and motivate employees in the 1950s and 1960s. But who knew companies still made promo music?! Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/product_music.html THE TROUBLE WITH SELF-ESTEEM Here?s a must-read from the New York Times Magazine a couple of years ago, about how self-esteem is grossly over-rated: http://www.racematters.org/thetroublewithselfesteem.htm PIMPIN' IS EASY...IN BRANDWEEK Check out this ad from a recent issue of BrandWeek. When I was teaching 12th graders about mass media, one of the ways I?d illustrate the central role of commerce was to familiarize students with trade ads, which always manage to portray the target audience as affluent, sheep-like spenders (often a touch glassy-eyed). So I?ve seen a ton of these things, but this one?s a new beast... Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/pimpin_is_easyi.html COPYRIGHT HOLDER DEMANDS THAT THE BLACKS KNOW THEIR PLACE Posted by Charles Star The Rogers and Hammerstein Foundation withdrew the license to perform some of the music in Big RIver from a high school production because it used reverse racial casting (or, more accurately, colorblind casting that resulted in reverse-race casting*) for the roles of Huck Finn and Jim. Way to keep that black actor in chains, R&H! Maybe instead of a slave, he can play a drug dealer or pimp in the next production. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/copyright_holde.html KING OF BEERS EXECUTES DISLOYAL SUBJECT Posted by Charles Star From the Associated Press: ?Ross Hopkins, 41, filed suit in Weld County District Court, saying American Eagle Distributing Co. has no right to tell him what kind of beer to drink when he is off-duty. Hopkins said he was fired in May 2003 after the son-in-law of the [Budweiser] distributorship owner saw him drinking Coors in a Greeley[, Colorado] bar.? Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/king_of_beers_e.html MY PEPSI HALLUCINATION Whenever I look at those new Pepsi ads, this is what I see (as illustrated by Mr. Torchinsky). Ad parody at: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/my_pepsi_halluc.html