Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
Me and my fellow 2007 graduates have started an annual tradition at school, by issuing an art magazine called HaGigit (‘a tub of thoughts‘ – a Hebrew pun). The magazine mixes original works by the recent graduates, including photography and Hebrew poetry, and it documents video works and installations. You can download it free here or contact the school to purchase a hard copy.
| Ever noticed that every book you read has its name printed on every second page? What’s the deal with that? What kind of boring books do people buy that they just pause in the middle of reading and ask themselves ‘What the hell am I reading?’ – ‘Oh, I see, in that case – on with the boring Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ |  |
Shahar currently reads the book ‘IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation‘. If you want him to read something else, you can purchase it for him on his Amazon.com Wish List.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the USSR, is making a print ad for Louis Vuitton. This comes a decade after his infamous TV ad for Pizza Hut. Either I don’t understand this new world, or I am just in denial for not liking what I see. It seems that everything and everyone is for sale: our history is for sale along with world leaders selling baggage, our childhood is for sale along with songs we grew up with now turning into soft-cheese-selling anthems.
Ehud Barak, Israel’s former prime minister, (Mazal Tov: he just got remarried this Friday), took a lot of grief for his decision to embark on a business career after his 2001 defeat in the general elections. But at least he made his millions of dollars lecturing abroad about world leadership and national security, subjects that are right up his alley. What kind of cachet does Gorby bring to Louis Vuitton? What does his participation in an advertisement campaign for bags for rich people do, other than say 'everything I ever stood for is crap'. It seems that even world renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz, could not mask his what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here face, with his hand holding the door handle looking like he wants to bolt from that limo.
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I just got a catalog from the local branch of Shufersal, Israel’s pioneer supermarket chain, and my eyes landed on a photo of a frozen bag of fries. I’m not sure if it is the oldest trick in the book, but it is certainly prevalent: take any Israeli made product, add the word ‘American’ in front of its name – and the indigenous people will buy it like crazy. That’s how you end up with a bag of French fries that reads ‘French fries’ in English and ‘American fries’ in Hebrew. |
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