The author describes the photo and its meaning this way:

It captures a two-day anti-capitalist rally protesting the Wall Street bailout. Through the use of reflection (in this photo of a restaurant, as well as this one playing the street off against a corporate lobby), Mario [Mario Tama, Getty Photographer] portrays America’s class schism (note the guy in the lime-colored reflective vest overlapped with the guy in the jacket with the wristwatch); America flip-flopping between awareness and denial; and the strange disconnect these days between crisis and ‘business as usual.

This is a wonderfully telling picture, but perhaps in addition to “America flip-flopping between awareness and denial,” one could also interpret the artistic use of reflection as representative of the ever-widening chasm between the social classes in the United States – one that will most likely not be remedied or even addressed in the near future.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

Here is the promotional video:

I’m curious to see what people think about this. On the one hand, I think it is terrific to see any underserved population represented in the media. On the other, this is MTV- the television station that is owned by the same company that brought you “Special Ed” (a developmentally disabled crank caller on the show Crank Yankers), the Johnny Knoxville movie, “The Ringer” (which I have only seen a part of, but I believe it is about a loser who enters the Special Olympics), not to mention Jackass. Is “How’s Your News?” supposed to be simply what it is being sold as– a feel good show about people who often fall by the wayside in popular culture?
If this is true, then a couple of questions come to mind: a) what does it say about either television or MTV viewers if it gets canceled early due to poor ratings, or b) what if its popularity leads to gross insensitivity (catchphrases, t-shirts, etc.)?

On a network like MTV, where is the line between “inspiring” and minstrelsy? Or is that up to us, the viewers?

Honestly, I am on the fence with this one, and would very much like to hear what people have to say.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

Click here to view the embedded video.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

Here are a couple of pictures that morph the faces of President-Elect Obama and Abraham Lincoln. By now, I doubt people haven’t either seen or imagined such images; the comparison is pretty popular in the media. Indeed, as Time columnist Joe Klein says in this article, Obama “has never been shy about comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln.” The more obvious reasons for such comparisons have to do with his platform of change, negotiation, and most notably, his appointment of “a team of rivals” to high cabinet positions (a notion that, given the very different contexts of their presidencies, holds less water than it should– for instance, Obama is not hurtling toward a civil war).

But another less examined consequence of this type of morphing is that images like these can also unintentionally work as a strategy to produce an essentialized vision of President Obama as untouchable. Perhaps in the end, the more that we (the public) buy into this morphing of the two presidents into one, the less apt we — Democrats, or even Republicans for that matter– are to either criticize or engage in serious policy discussions and debates. In a sense, such comparisons could potentially allow President-Elect Obama to squelch, change, or appropriate differing viewpoints within his own party, and visual representation through the various morphings of Obama-Lincoln we find on the internet and in print– and the instant association we make between the two– could very well keep the American public from seriously disagreeing with his “core vision,” whether from the left or the right.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

I used to like whiskey, but after seeing this two-page ad, I feel like I may no longer be manly enough to drink it. My personal high-water mark is somewhere around a sprained ankle or *maybe* a broken finger– nowhere near a sawed-off leg. Besides, the last thing I need is the Man-Police arresting me at my favorite bar for “Drinking-Whiskey-While-Having-A-Low-Pain-Tolerance”…I think the penalty is a stiff fine and 200 hours of Steven Segal movies.

Oh well, I guess it’s vodka cranberries from now on…

NEW: Here’s another 2-page Jim Beam ad, in which the message is clearly that wine is a sissy drink:

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)