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Gatz Are

Broke Art

The rivalry between two of Berkeley’s top graffiti artists, Broke and Gatz, might, at first, not sound like a topic worthy for consideration. People would be very disparaging regarding an attempt by the World’s Laziest Journalist to chronicle that aspect of obscure pop culture. What if they learned that he was working on assignment for the New Yorker magazine? According to an urban legend, there are more subscribers to New Yorker magazine who live in Berkeley than there are on Staten Island. It could happen, just like a bill to help the Veterans could have been passed before the summer recess.

Suppose that a prestigious New York art gallery were to feature a show with work done by Broke; how long would it be before one of their rivals was holding an opening night gala reception for Gatz?

An exhibition titled “Nite Owl the Pursuit of Slappiness,” will open in Oakland on August 1^st.

Eventually some New York based publication will be open to the possibility of using a story that outlines what slap art is, who is doing it, and running photos that show examples of the work being created. Editors are voracious in their search for new and interesting topics but they don’t want to be too innovative either.

If the Republicans are successful in the fall mid-term elections and get a better chance to impeach and convict President Obama does that mean that Joe Biden would then have the incumbent’s advantage for getting the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2016 and that metaphorically speaking Hilary would be “left at the alter” lamenting her bad luck?

In an era when news is a pastiche of headlines and little else, repercussions of a new Impeachment story are mostly ignored.

Since the dog days are upon us and since we try to pick up the table scraps stories that don’t fit into the austerity budget methods being used by the national media, we’ll mention a few of the missing long term effects impeachment would have on the United States.

If the Republicans win a majority in the Senate they could start impeachement proceedings with blitzkrieg speed. If the Republicans rush through the process (think lynch mob speed); then what? The President would be removed from office and the Vice President would be sworn in to be President until the 2016 Presidential Election.

If Joseph Biden becomes President via such a partisan political scenario, then his prospects to get the nomination would change dramatically. A sitting President can deal out some favors and in return get some strong support at the next nominating convention. Hilary could lose her frontrunner advantage.

A sitting President operating from the Oval Office would have some built-in advantages as far a publicity is concerned and editors would be courted for giving favorable play to stories that stress the President’s selling points for winning re-election.

Could the Republicans be so anxious to deal out a sever punishment to America’s first President of African-American heritage that they might not be bothered to be concerned with the long term effects such a move would have on the future biographies of Joseph Biden that are yet to be written.

It seems quite likely that Hilary and her political advisors are aware of just how much of an impact on her decision about running (or not) for President an impeachment would have. It would be to her advantage to surreptitiously do what she can to sabotage any attempts to impeach President Obama.

Now, suddenly, innocuous trend-spotting feature stories become more than fodder for the dog days of August. Would Hilary & Co. be inclined to stress the amusement value of a Broke vs. Gatz story for a magazine editor in Manhattan rather than something which might jeopardize her frontrunner advantage?

On Friday, July 29, 2014, we had our fist encounter with the Rachael Maddow TV show on MSNBC. We were delighted (but not surprised) to learn that due to the Republican sit down strike in Congress, a quarter of all U. S. Embassies around the world are operating without an Ambassador. When we did a Google News search on Monday afternoon, we learned that the Korea Times ran a story with that same bit of news.

She also predicted that it seemed very likely to her that Congress would go on its summer vacation and not send a bill to the President for improving the medical services provided for military veterans.

If Rachael Maddow can report those two stories and the backup she gets is from the likes of the World’s Laziest Journalist, would it be “Elementary, my dear Watson,” to conclude that journalism in the USA is approaching flat lining status?

Perhaps the staff at the World’s Laziest Journalist New Organization is monitoring the wrong media, but it seems like, in the summer of 2014, an alarming case of “not connecting the dots” is occurring in the journalism arena in the USA.

As the world headed toward the start of August 2014, in the USA, news media started the week with stories indicating that a compromise between Republicans and Democrats was being crafted and that a bill to improve the health care provided for military veterans would be sent to the President by the end of the week. Cynics were expecting that some minor “parliamentary procedure” would be used to derail that expenditure of funds.

The Republicans were quick to rush to the TV cameras to provide eloquent sound bites that urged support for America’s wounded heroes but then they sit around like they are participating in a sit down strike and waste time until it’s time to vamoose for the summer recess.

Didn’t Bessie Smith die because she couldn’t get to a hospital that treated people of African-American heritage? How will the rednecks react if the same thing happens to a Medal of Honor winner this summer?

Many moons ago, when veterans held a sit-in in the lobby of the Veterans Hospital in West L. A., we mentored a young college kid majoring in photo journalism and helped him cover that story. When the police finally came and carried the vets away, the young man provided AP with coverage that got good play.

If the Veterans start a new Occupy the Lobby protest at that hospital, maybe that photographer can provide some assistance to a rookie and help a new generation of photographers get a break.

There’s and old saying that asserts things never change. We’re beginning to believe that might be so.

Isn’t there an adage that says don’t tell me what you’re going to do; show me what you do? Actions speak louder than words but sound bytes on the Evening News help bamboozle the rubes and win re-election campaigns. If the Getty and Armstrong radio show wasn’t running on “Best of” status this week, you can bet they would have been urging Congress to do something . . . but they were so they didn’t.

In “The Armies of the Night,” Norman Mailer wrote (on page 54): “Either the century was entrenching itself more deeply into the absurd, or the absurd was delivering evidence that it was possessed of some of the nutritive mysteries of a mirror which would yet feed the armies of he absurd.” (WTF?)

Now the disk jockey will play some songs for the veterans who are anxiously awaiting the chance to donate to the re-election campaign of their local Congressman. He will play: the 1939 song “Old Age Pension,” for those who die before they can get the medical services the Republicans wanted to approve, the WWII song “Smoke on the Water” (not to be confused with a different recording using the same title done by Deep Purple), and the obscure (of course it’s obscure it uses Liberal talking points!) Arlene Harden recording titled: “Congratulations (You Sure Made a Man Out of Him)” and plenty more. He’ll do a grand finale finish by playing Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black” (“I wear the black for mournin’ for the lives that could have been”). We have to get to the art opening in Oakland tonight. Have an “adjourned for the month of August” type week.