Life in the Panopticon

Picked this up about a week ago. Am image of the cover on another site aroused my curiosity. A description of the book closed the deal. It spent the last few days sitting on my desk, where I avoided it until I was in the right frame of mind to really pay attention to it as a whole work.

I don’t know that there’s anything here that would change someone’s mind about the right or wrong of either the current war or conflict in general, but it was a compelling expression of one person’s experience as an Army nurse at Abu Ghraib during 2004-2005. The delivery is raw and the photographs are largely left to speak for themselves, but occasional commentary, repetition, and darkness help communicate something about the experience that makes this one tiny slice of the greater whole personal in a way that’s been missing from the other media coverage of Iraq that I’ve seen to date.

Monica Haller: Riley and His Story

Interview with curator Mónica Ramírez-Montagut

KAWS Bio

Exhibition overview

[via TheWorldsBestEver]

RIP Harvey Pekar, best known for his autobiographical comic American Splendor

Harvey Pekar

[via Cleveland.com]

Hubbert peak of oil production

[via If Charlie Parker was a Gunslinger...]

“A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him,

“Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied,

“You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”

“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Republican.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man,

“you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”

[via runningdive.ca]