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Apologies for having taken so long to send another update. Much has been happening and occupying a lot of my time. I am editing a web log for the First Amendment Project over whose Board I preside, as well as working on a couple of projects that are not ready for human consumption just yet. We have been getting an enormous amount of media attention thanks to one of our Advisory Board members, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Michael Chabon, who orchestrated an incredible campaign that has 16 top authors auctioning off the name of a character in their upcoming books to raise funds for First Amendment Project. Visit the auction and possibly immortalize yourself in a fabulous novel. The poster I designed for the event will be auctioned too. My editorial, Reality Blows, looks at why Tom Cruise is becoming about as popular as Donald Rumsfeld, and my most recent, It Takes a Prick, explores how America finally seems to be second guessing the spin that's being fed to them by an Administration that seems to be losing control by the hour. And then there are women's rights in Iraq, which inspires my most recent Annoy.com cover. Iraqi women must be delighted that liberation of Iraq meant the subjugation of women, where the only common thread uniting Iraq's armed Islamists, be they Sunni or Shia, is an intense hatred of women that rivals their hatred for the United States, Britain and their "allies." If this is how America spreads democracy, the clap would have been more appreciated. Till next time. |
News and Stuff... First Amendment Project Auction
First, the First Amendment Project. We have been getting an enormous amount of attention thanks to one of our Advisory Board members, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Michael Chabon, who orchestrated an incredible campaign that has 16 top authors auctioning off the name of a character in their upcoming books to raise funds for First Amendment Project. This will take place from September 1 -25, in conjunction with eBay Giving Works, the dedicated program for charity listings, and Auction Cause. Prominent writers include Dorothy Allison, Dave Eggers, Karen Joy Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Andrew Sean Greer, John Grisham, Stephen King, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, ZZ Packer, Chuck Palahniuk, Nora Roberts, Lemony Snicket, Peter Straub, Amy Tan, and Ayelet Waldman.
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Writers of the Storm: Fake News and Public Decency in the Age of Terror My friend, poet Jayne Lyn Stahl, founded and heads Writers-at-Large, and yours truly will be moderating this panel on September 28, 2005.
Writers-at-Large, a California-based writers' advocacy group, is delighted to bring you Writers of the Storm: Fake News and Public Decency in the Age of Terror. The panel will deal with our role, as writers, in speaking to the neutering of the news, as well as what the concept of decency means, who gets to decide that, and why, as well as whether that decision diminishes the importance of diversity of opinion.
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Freedom of Expression in Times of War Along with my friend Hanna Regev who, among other things, co-ordinated the program for my Numb & Number exhibition, I will be presenting this one-day seminar through University of California: Berkeley Extension.
Why is political art expressing so little dissent under the current Bush Administration? How does implementation of the Patriot Act impact the arts and artists? When does one's right to remain silent become an order from the government? And what is the cost of free speech?
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Displaying and Containing Controversy: Practical Strategies I will be serving as a panelist on the following panel for the Western Museums Association at their annual meeting in Pasadena. Association This session explores three cases of successful media campaigns that transformed controversial exhibitions into productive opportunities for education and dialogue: "Numb and Number," "What's Going On? California and the Vietnam Era," and "Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies." Panelists provide insight and information used to minimize future debacles when developing difficult exhibitions, by anticipating conflicts and devising appropriate strategies to diffuse them. Moderator: Hanna Regev, Museum and Gallery Consultant, Toomey Tourell; Presenters: Clinton Fein, Artist; Barbara Henry, Chief Curator of Education, Oakland Museum of California; Shell Amega, Vice President, Communications, California Science Center.
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Annoy.com Editorials
Although it's difficult to determine which of the mixed messages the accurate one is, it looks as though America's pulling out of Iraq and it isn't. John Kerry couldn't have come up with a more classic flip-flop.
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Reinforcing that no amount of money can buy breeding or taste. America is looking more and more like a gaudy, Liberace-inspired, palatial trailer where plush and lush and cash and trash are one and the same and where a culture war seems to be tirelessly waged in a cultureless society.
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Mr. Bush:
It's not only your Department of Defense firing competent linguists who might help thwart terrorists attacks, but someone who serves you in the White House dangerously outed CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to journalists, the slimiest of whom, Robert Novack, took the bait. For nothing more than having the indecency to marry someone critical of your administration's lies. The lies you used in a State of the Union speech to justify a preemptive war against a country that had nothing to do with September 11th. Have you ever mentioned the name Valerie Plame, Sir?
>>Clinton Fein, Tell Us When, Tell Us How: A Letter to President Bush |
Annoy.com Feature
If gay bashing, teen suicide and genuine attempts by politicians and Presidents to actually amend America's constitution to explicitly deny rights to homosexuals weren't clear and present dangers, the notion of a "gay agenda" would be laughable.
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Newsweek's little faux pas -- failing to authenticate a story about interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushing a Q'uran down the toilet -- provided fodder for the White House to deflect criticism of its own policies by blaming Newsweek for America's lack of global popularity. My image of the Q'uran in the toilet on the cover of Newsweek prompted much criticism, but quite honestly, I would have done the same had the story been about the Bible or Torah.
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