Up is Down Around the Corner

trick or treat? Paul Newman would never behave this way.

Black Jesus, Maury mother of Red Coral, if i see one more of these "another dem for McSame" signs, liable to blow a gasket. I assure you these neighbors are not blue. Devious Frontal Lawn Displays are on the rise as the enablers pull out all the trickery only the desperate do. With the much anticipated Wall Strut Bail Bond-fire, another curious neighbor managed to capture magically the likeness of W and Granda McSame using whatever was on hand like duct tape and hopefully recycled lawn signs.



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Newman's Home

In celebration of a fraternal foodie, a beautiful man.



To dominate physically is an art and a science, a healthy dose of beauty, brains and brawn.



People tell me I look like him.... what do you think.



Swampthing on the set of "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" 1970


Inimitable Dishes - Newman and Shirley McLaine at Miami Beach NATO awards.



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Post No Bills, Get No Thrills

sink or swim with swampstyle

As a young artist in the seventies, there was something about growing up in Miami that hounded me. Natural splendor aside, it was the blandness, it was that little voice in my head that kept saying, "get the heck out of the swamp". So I moved away and in visiting mayor metropolitan cities soon realized how deficient my hometown was with regard to the substance of urban life. There was little diversity of people, little access to cultural material, isolation for fringe thinkers, and no people nor art in the streets. For me, graffiti and even posting of bills is synonymous with a healthy substantial visual culture of our modern urban society. Sure there are aspects of the phenomenon that are cause for pause, but counterculture style has been appropriated and commercialized for mass consumption, wildstyle sells. From Paris to NY to Minneapolis and Mexico City, from Bombay India to Bogota Colombia, most mayor world-class urban centers are rich with unsanctioned visual manifestations of their inhabitants aesthetic. But not Miami of 2008. We still have this backward notion that the cityscape must be greige and void of visual vitality. Officials have a long standing disdain for anything resembling graffiti. But they have no problem with the visual pollution resulting from too many billboards street-signs and Brittos.


Another new billboard frame completed.

It is perfectly lucrative to capitalize on prime real estate by leasing the side of your building to the billboard people like media hog ClearChannel. The county is ok with that because it adds to the revenue stream. They are not so concerned with the changing content of the ads.

But if you allow some enthusiastic young artist to paint murals on your building without compliance with the county Sign Ordinance, and if the style of the work is urban inspired, then you can expect a visit from the local anti-graffiti task force. According to one source from the writers community, the county is spending big bucks to go after all non-permitted public works of expression with a vengeance for anything that even resembles graffiti.
One artist said if you can't finish a mural in one day, don't even start it because you get busted when you go back to finish.


Art Rumor #1:
Shed a Tear for Krylon
Marti Margulies local giant in the art world is battling with officials over the murals painted by young artists including his son. The county wants him to get rid of this amazing artwork because of some imaginary anonymous complaints. The building that houses his collection is very visible from I-95. The commission does not appreciate Margulies vocal/failed opposition to another taxpayer funded mega-museum. If they are in court, I hope Marti' lawyers open up a can of whoopasskrylon.

Murals at the Margulies building



Metro-Dade lists reasons to battle graffiti and any mural that does not comply with the Sign Ordinance. Controlling graffiti is necessary since it has been proven to:

Cause a decline in property values. Attract criminals into the neighboring areas. Discourage businesses from relocating into areas. Cause residents to hesitate about moving into areas. Costs to the County, residents, and businesses are extremely high. Property owners are responsible for maintaining their residential property or common area graffiti free, including walls and fences that are visible from the public right-of-way, mailboxes, etc. Property owners must remove graffiti from commercial buildings, vehicles, trash dumpsters, and other commercial property. Miami-Dade County has the authority to paint over graffiti that is on a wall or fence that abuts the right-of-way without prior notice to the property owner.

I guess the housing market crash, ballooning property taxes, corrupt gov, jeb's cronies, guzzlin hummers and buses plastered with ads don't have the same effect.


An unfinished mural....ooooh creepy, but cool.


Another unfinished mural.... props to Miller Machinery.

When you have an hour to kill:
Miami Graffiti has the definitive comprehensive list of writers, tagers, bombers and wanabees.


Art Rumor #2:
Kaws for Alarm
It appears that they disappeared.. that two small painting by graffiti artist Kaws aka Brian Donnelly were stolen from his current show at Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery. The perps will not be able to sell them and have attracted the attention of the FBI as it is a federal offense to peddle stolen artworks. If you have any information, post a comment.





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License to Hate

When a team of divers recovered this 2 ton bronze Nazi Eagle from the wreck of the Graf Spee of the coast of Uruguay, they decided to cover the swastika so as not to offend the public.

After the Dem convention in Denver, the Rove appointed Colorado state attorney Roy Eid dropped the charges against the three would-be self-confessed Obama assassins, the patsy dumb-ass swastika sporting meth-heads. With one stroke of his pen, Eid not only politicized law enforcement, he gave the green-light to all homegrown haters that it is ok to act on their despicable emotions. The crazies get the message, but most other americans really aren't paying too much attention.
To contrast the aftermath of the conventions, the repug in St.Paul brought us images of their police state jack boot thugs detaining college kids, grandmas, journalists Amy Goodman and about 400 regular folk for "conspiring to riot".


See Evil, Hear Evil, Speak Evil.
These are the faces of the children of the conservative media agenda, theRush Limpbaugh, O'Reilly, GlenBeck haters cult.


Count me out of that "we".
The haters are working over-time to further their racist ideals.
Where is the outrage?
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ID Chips Ahoy

Lone motorist GPSing on the Julia Tuttle beach-bound. The swamp is her oyster.

It's good to be a Kickapoo when traveling from Canada or Mexico to and from the USA.
But your native Indian tribe member card will not be enough. You will also need a Nexus Card, or a Fast Card, or a Sentri Card, a smart passport, and an enhanced drivers license. Plus you will still have to remove your shoes and muster the wear-with-all to totally go limp when the rookie is processing you. Finally, you can probably sign up now for the sub-dermal "ID chip" implant. It's painless and lasts a lifetime of travel.


ID schmidy, buck on this.

As part of the patrirot act, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is well under way to becoming reality when fully implemented by 2009. This would not be all together a bad thing if it were not for the simple fact that the gathering of human individual intelligence is one of those totally Orwellian nightmare that has become reality under the painful bush/cheney/mccain master-disaster. Never in the history of the human race have we common folk had such a complete and oppressive intrusion into our privacy and ability to to travel freely. Who among us does not value their individuality enough to scream bloody murder when we see the ill-effects of the past eight years.

So open up a can of Kickapoo Joy Juice and celebrate the little privacy remaining.


Two's the limit.

titanic twitter on 23/6

I have not figured out how to embed vids on this blog, but Rick Sanchez is a complete idiot, always has been, always will be. He is CNN's answer to america's inFOXuation with the regular folk appeal. I guess John King and Larry King more than make up for the sanchez factor.

Thanks to Betty Cracker for the laughs and tears.

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The Face of Terror

Would you give this man $ 7,000,000,000,000. brazillion dollars?
Of course not... so he will just have to steal it, legally.
The Bush Crime Family is hell bent on a last chance, mad grab for cash.
Their contempt for average american is lethal.

Paul Krugman says:

Mr. Paulson insists that he wants a “clean” plan. “Clean,” in this context, means a taxpayer-financed bailout with no strings attached — no quid pro quo on the part of those being bailed out. Why is that a good thing? Add to this the fact that Mr. Paulson is also demanding dictatorial authority, plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency,” and this adds up to an unacceptable proposal.




For the nasty result of the myriad of crisis Bush n Cheney created, the republicans are prepared with the only thing they know will quell the malcontent, brute force. The concentration... errr FEMA Emergency Camps are ready, all they need now is 'the new jew'. Who might that be dear liberal friends?



Ahhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiii.

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Muddy the Waters

It is easy to understand why many many republicans will hold their nose and go with obama. Everyone loves a winner.



Though i have not worked for republicans since 2000, they are still my friends, family and neighbors. But when I saw this on the lawn down the street... flabbergast was the first response. The second was geez, how sad that grandpy mcSame's campaign actually printed and distributed such an audacious graphic. And how is it that conservatives manage to avoid deep personal reconciliation after the humongous lapse of logic of the past 8 years.

With democrats like those, who need republicans?
Exhibit W: Their weather worn W'04 bumper-sticker, go figure.


sad little people.
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Feces Occurs

Ouch


Waiting for the next bus may be hazardous to your health.



Shattered glass completes the picture of this bus shelter on N.E. Second Avenue, a major street with no curb as of 2008. I guess we are still just another developing nation.

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quarters make dollars

If you go to park your car in the only public metered lot on the beach at 21 street and Collins, a shady private guard planted on a folding chair will want 2 bucks from beach residents and 10 buck if you are a non-resident. Friday night 11:45 PM at the Design District trendy restaurants, meter maids are out with a vengeance for luxury diners. Moral Gable street scene, just more of same kind of neurotic parasitical nuisance. DwnTwn is a ghost-town till the clubs crank-up another round of nocturnal citation issuing sprees. Wynwood's gallery-walks ... parking not so bad thus far, but it's just a matter of more meters, signs n stripes. Once the pond is stocked, it's fishing time for the meter-maid brigades.

What a bunch of turds. Nothing is more disturbing than petty greed on a big scale.
WTF with the parking situation in the swamp, it's nothing short of a calculated assault on our public commons and shrinking wallets. To whom do the streets belong to now-a-days? We have about five minutes remaining in the "quality of life meter".

Reading this article in a recent SunPost on the idea floating around miami beach city hall for privatizing meter-maids is like swimming through a cloud of stinging jelly-fish to find the truth.

“I have to tell you, I have a big problem with the way they treat people, the way they’re out there doing things,” Bower said Aug. 21. “They are our ambassadors out there. They should be polite to everybody.” mayor Bower


Basically the mayor and friends want to fire a bunch of unionized dumb-ass city employees then continue the harassment of the public using private armies of dumb-ass meter-maids. Then to top of the cluster-fck they want to have the cops take over the whole gravy-train of parking enforcement to avoid "corruption".

What a pile of contradictions and between-the-lines distorted Orwellian new-speak. We all know reporting is supposed to give us the facts with a little analysis for good measure, but let's face it, the parking situation blows and it will probably get worse.

The topic of privatizing parking enforcement will likely be discussed at the Oct. 7 commission meeting at Miami Beach City Hall.

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Woman's Man

The modern swamp is a weird place. No condition is permanent.


All aboard at the south-bound train from Viscaya Metro station platform, strangely empty.
Destination University of Miami Women for Obama event.


Eight thousand Obama supporters lumbered in.
The longest line was the E-ticket crowd.


TSA did a stand-up job screening at the entrance. no need to go limp.


Our next president. Ohh yeah, and ahh Debbie Wasserman's Schultz...


A group of young black guys disrupted the speech with heckles of "obama go home" while holding illegible signs, something about KFC. The 'man' told them it's ok to hold up signs, but not to interrupt. They dutifully marched off with security escorts. a non event, odd disturbance in the nose bleed seats.



Three awesome future voters, these DASH kids skipped school to be there for the historic event.



This gentleman is running for job of county property appraiser.


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Hellacious Haiti

Just two hours away from Miami on the Island of Hispañola the Haitian people are royally screwed.



All the hand-me-downs in Little Haiti will not change the tragedy that has afflicted the tiny island nation for generations. It is one thing to deal with natural disasters but quit another to be victimized repeatedly by predatory world banks and bush-style foreign policy. It is overwhelming for a people steeped in the superstitions of the tropics.



Rising waters and lowered expectations make for the knock-out one-two punch. You just don't bounce back so easy.



The United Nations steps up to the razor-wire. Is it too little, too late?



Blue Gold arrives in single size servings. The empty bottles could make a suitable raft.



From Medecines Sans Frontieres:

"Between September 1 and 7, Haiti was hit by Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna, and Hurricane Ike; 25,000 to 30,000 houses are reported to have been destroyed and 500 people are reported dead..."



....meanwhile back home in the USA some of us carry on like clowns without a clue.

UPDATE:
Go to 'buildings n food' for totally impressive photos of Ike's revenge.

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nineleven neocon heaven

Like swiss cheese, the official story is full of holes.....
If it smells like roquefort cheese, it's a conspiracy.
If they call you a tin-foil nut, remind them it only takes two people to conspire.
Special thanks go out to Cheney n W.

The authors of 9/11 needed a horrifyingly spectacular, murderous attack on the American 'homeland' in order to elicit this 'Pearl Harbor effect.' They needed to 'disrupt America's self-mythology of being invincible' so that Arabs and Muslims 'would never be forgiven in the irrational American sentiment.' They were not interested in triggering just one quick war in Afghanistan, or a second one in Iraq. They were after 'the war that will not end in our lifetimes'-an ongoing war that would remove Americans' Constitutional liberties, massively increase military expenditures, and legitimize attacks against Middle Eastern nations for decades into the future, on behalf of Israeli expansionism and the petrodollar hegemony on which it depends.


October 11, 2001 Clean-up at ground zero, a chunk of cold steel and human dust being hauled off to Staten Island for quick disposal of evidence.

Under coercion, millions of otherwise rational people can be persuaded to act against their own interests-whether by shelling out big bucks for an overpriced lemon, betraying a comrade and a cause, or allowing a gang of criminals to destroy their nation's Constitution and launch criminal wars of aggression.



How did I get on the v.i.p. side of this line? by thinking critically.

The choice of September 11th as the date of the attacks was obviously made by a psychological warfare expert who wanted to make the American people suffer induced regression and put childlike faith in their government. The number 911 has overwhelming emotional associations in the mind of every American. From early childhood, we are taught that this is the magic number we can call in the event of an emergency. If anything terrible or deeply threatening happens to us, all we have to do is push those three buttons on the nearest telephone, and a benevolent parent figure-the government-will come rushing to help us. With the ongoing breakdown of the family and its authority, and the widespread consciousness of abuse between family members, the number 911 represents the government that has become our real daddy. The planners of 9/11 took advantage of this fact, enshrining their false-flag attack with a number that evokes our desperate, childlike need for the government to be the daddy who comes racing to help us in an emergency. Every time we hear '9/11' we are enveloped in subconscious emotional associations of a benevolent, fatherly government that can be counted on to save us from catastrophe. Unless we have learned how to defend ourselves against coercion, it is these emotional associations, not facts, that condition how we think.


Oct 11 2001, Delivering cards n cash from miami kids for first responders in Brooklyn engine 118.

The choice of September 11th as the date of the attacks was obviously made by a psychological warfare expert who wanted to make the American people suffer induced regression and put childlike faith in their government. The number 911 has overwhelming emotional associations in the mind of every American. From early childhood, we are taught that this is the magic number we can call in the event of an emergency. If anything terrible or deeply threatening happens to us, all we have to do is push those three buttons on the nearest telephone, and a benevolent parent figure-the government-will come rushing to help us. With the ongoing breakdown of the family and its authority, and the widespread consciousness of abuse between family members, the number 911 represents the government that has become our real daddy. The planners of 9/11 took advantage of this fact, enshrining their false-flag attack with a number that evokes our desperate, childlike need for the government to be the daddy who comes racing to help us in an emergency. Every time we hear '9/11' we are enveloped in subconscious emotional associations of a benevolent, fatherly government that can be counted on to save us from catastrophe. Unless we have learned how to defend ourselves against coercion, it is these emotional associations, not facts, that condition how we think.



Oct. 11, 2001 Swampthing sheds a tear with street performer, comic healer.

The 9/11 truth-awakened individual will not succumb to the blandishments of advertisers, political pundits, cult leaders, politicians, or Fox News commentators. He or she will smell coercion coming from a mile away, and tell the prospective coercer into which orifice their coercion may be inserted.



Excerpts from:
Apocalypse of Coercion: Why We Listen to What 'They' Say About 9/11
By Kevin Barrett, http://mujca.com

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major brown-out

How many of the world's people have never ever used a telephone?  

How many people are drowning in a sea of gadgets that have become indispensable to our lifestyle.  Why should i cry over a broken computer.  Swampstyle blogging forecast: expect mild to no postings until I swap-out the LCD on my antique apple notebook.  Fortunately Do It Yourselfing is alive and thriving in the USA.