2. September 11th’s Week in Review | Timothy Comeau
Last weekend hearing the words “September 11th” as part of a documentary made me realize how it has become an integral part of our vocabulary, used almost unconsciously. The following is an account of my hearing in conversation or radio, and seeing in print, the words “9/11” or “September 11th”. I have tried to record the time and the context as accurately as and as agreeably as possible, without extraneous detail.
sun 26 jan
on Catholic.net, in an article headlined, “The Day they begged for priests”
12:29 AM | in a Trektoday.com BBS posting about two particular episodes of DS9
mon 27 jan
12.10am | heard on BBC radio report on the impending Hans Blix report
3pm | “stories from 911” as a subtitle to a book seen at Pages
5pm | completely unrelated paragraph in the book Citizens by Simon Schama, refering to September 11 1792
8.08pm | David Frum speaking in an interview on TVO
9.20pm | In an article by Christopher Hitchens on Slate.com
tues 28 jan
12.30pm | Walter Mead, writing in the Globe and Mail, includes “Sept 11.” three times in his commentary article by Walter Mead in the Globe and Mail with the headline “How Bush grasps the world”.
1.55pm | “9/11” seen in a graphic from a CNN screencapture of the memorial service in a Google.com image search for the Ground Zero architectural proposals (prompted by an article headline in artsjournal.com).
2.36pm | David Collenete, Minister of Transport, speaking during Question Period broadcast live on CPAC, said “September 11th 2001”
8.13-14 PM | “September 11th” was said three times in the space of two minutes during the Newshour special on the 108th Congress on PBS
wed 29 jan
1.14 am | “9/11” heard in an interview on the State of the Union address with Alexie Simingtiger (not sure if that’s spelled right) broadcast on the BBC World Service.
1.44-46pm | Isabelle Devos, speaking about her “Insecurities Project” in a CBC Newsworld interview said, “September 11th” twice in two minutes.
thu 30 jan
3.14 am | “September 11th” was said in a voice over and in print on CBC News. The story involved the Privacy Commissioner’s report on the Federal Government’s proposed security legislation.
1.31pm | From Google.news: “September 11 relatives relive trauma > Expatica > 1 hour ago > 30 January 2003 HAMBURG > Five relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks offered tearful testimony at the al Qaeda terrorism trial in Germany”
1.34m | Headline on CBC.ca: “Witness > Tonight’s documentary, “Security Threat” shows how far security demands have threatened our privacy and curtailed our civil liberties since Sept. 11th”.
2.33pm | Headline on GlobeandMail.ca “Privacy under ‘unprecedented assault’ Radwanski accuses Ottawa of ‘using’ Sept. 11 to become Big Brother”.
4.40pm | Google.news “Ridge Touts Border Security Plan > Washington Post – 2 hours ago > New homeland security chief Tom Ridge, telling America’s enemies: “We are coming after you,” set out his plans on Thursday for tightening security at US borders and preventing further Sept. 11-style attacks. “
4.46 | Headline on CNN.com ” 9/11 families confront terror suspect in German court”fri 31 jan
Rick Groen’s review of the movie “The Recruit” in the Globe and Mail: “Certainly, there can be no doubt that the setting here is post-Sept 11”.
4.12pm | George W. Bush, speaking at his press conference with Tony Blair, “After September 11th 2001 the world changed…” Tony Blair, speaking a minute after, said, “…his leadership since September 11th…”sat 1 feb
This week’s issue of the Economist, in an article envisioning the world in 2033 mentions “September 11th”.
Shuttle Accident: CNN reporter in front of the White House mentions “September 11th”
I visited Sasha at Mercer Union and told her about Shuttle Disaster II. We went on the internet to watch videos on CBC.ca; Sasha and I began to talk about how it was like September 11th, the news coverage being on all channels. Notable comment by Sasha regarding our use of the net to follow the story, “…the internet wasn’t very good during 9/11…”.
Later I was browsing in Pages and my eye caught Noam Chomsky’s “9/11” book.
2. Caroline Mosby’s Forwarded Jokes | Timothy Comeau
What is it about creativity that turns some of us into Shakespeare and others into designers of porno sites? I am really rather enthralled by the diversity of expression available to us both as creators and “consumers of creative products” to put it in a contemporary way. The old boring debate about low-brow and high-brow has a new dimension now that people are actually spending a considerable amount of time producing animated gifs and other photoshop kitsch.
Last fall I was added to the mailing list of Caroline Mosby, who would appear to be a node in the network of forwards and replies. Since September I have been occasionally receiving sexually suggestive animated gif’s and jpegs, which I often don’t find that har-har funny, since my sense-of-humour is more attuned to Kids in The Hall type absurdity and deadpan understatement. However, I still really like seeing what’s out there, and some of them have been worth noting.
The highlights:
Email with the subject line, “Nice Art” featuring various examples of body painting. The nipple of a breast becomes the nose of a cartoony mouse, female pubic hair becomes the beard of a man and the nest of a bird, a penis painted gray becomes the trunk of an elephant.
Email with the subject line, “You named it what!?” featuring photographs of restaurants, tackle shops, and road signs with improbable but real names, most from the website, http://www.geetrish.com. Buy fish and tackle gear at “Master-Baiter” ; Eat at “Lick-a-chick Restaurant” or at “Fuk-Mi Sushi and Seafood Buffet”. Also featured, a gravestone for a couple with the last name “Kaput”, a restaurant or high-end store named “Cocks”, and a road sign for a place named “Dick Lick Springs”.
Last November, I received an image of a school project that involved growing cacti, only the school decided to use clown pots, where the plant was supposed to grow from the clown’s baggy pants. Some months later, after these children had planted and watered their little cacti, the clowns all appeared to have massive erections. I appreciated getting a glimpse into utter stupidity. Shouldn’t this have been forseen – what were they thinking? But the colours are really nice.
Before Christmas I received an animated gif of a snowman who popped a boner when a snowwomen with breasts scooted on by. Unbalanced by the weight of his erection, he toppled over. I appreciated this one for its simplicity and skillful rendering.
Recently I was sent a picture of an obese orgy, with the subject line, “What really goes on at Jenny Craig.” I don’t think making fun of fat people is funny, for reasons both obvious and not, but no matter – I found the composition engaging and liked seeing the exaggeration of the human form. I began a drawing of it, and working on the drawing I began to think Jenny Saville, Lucien Freud, and Rubens enjoy painting fat because of the sensuality of mixing caucasian flesh-tone paint. Obesity produces such a rich quality of tones – from browns to blues to white and orange, contained within the template upon which we have based so much of our aesthetics – the human body – but it is the human body baroque, the template exaggerated.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of receiving a compilations of brain-teasers and optical illusions that have being going around the net for years. I was familiar with some of them, and others were new to me. It was really a nice way to start the day, to be hypnotized by the spinning op-art gifs and the “stare at this for 30 seconds then look away” picture tricks.All in all, it has made the past few months more interesting than it would have been otherwise, and I look forward to see what will be coming up next. If you would like to be added to Caroline’s email list, send a message to car_o_line009@hotmail.com.
Rating (for the list as a whole): 7/10
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