Creative Disease -
absurd, profane humor, strange ideas and surrealist art brought to you regularly.
Unless noted all work by David Holtek and Friends. Feel free to link and repost but only in a not-for-profit manner please.

Creative Disease -

making a case for anti-social counter-networking since 1998

HOME

CAFEPRESS SHOP

INFO/CONTACT

twitter

Share

What's wrong with this picture?

I wanted to avoid turning this tirade into a "Europe vs America thing" but it seems like the proper context. The "corporatization of life" is a hot topic at the moment. And in these pictures we can see the ugly truth.

Is not the lovely skyline of the patently capitalistic city of Chicago not enough to speak for itself? Can't we just enjoy the results of our great American enterprise without having to dick-fuck it over the top with rabid corporate logoneering? Here we have a potentially perfect view all whored-out with monotonous banners differentiated only by the various corporate logos at the bottom.

And if that wasn't bad enough the masterminds behind the Navy Pier also have a veritable best hits of the worst of American pop music blaring at painful levels. Why does everything have to be a rock show? Why is every vista allowed to be hijacked by commercial panhandling?

Why? Because we let it happen.

I can't think of a single similar striking vista in any of the European cities I've visited that have been anywhere near as commercialized and vandalized as this. In fact isn't it about time we invent a neologism that combines commercialization with vandalism? How about "bizvandalism"?

Maybe when more of us start thinking about it in such terms things can start to change.

Who owns views, exactly?

This morning I saw a blue car with vanity plates that read "IM TEAL".

This sadsack, having spent half his life dreaming of one day having vanity plates, found himself sitting at his desk at work giddy over the 3.5% raise his emasculatinig boss just dropped in his quivering lap. But the initial rush soon turned into a blood draining chill. Finally, he could afford those vanity plates.......but....but....now came the hard part.

What would they be?

Our aspiring creative hardly got a shred of work done the rest of the day. He surfed the internet for catchy phrases. His sweaty hands tore through the dictionary hoping to spot the perfect words. Maybe he would use an "8" in a phonetic manner, like "GR8T GUY" or a "2" - "2COOL". The possibilities were endless.

He spent the weekend in a daze. Nothing seemed right. What if he chose something and then didn't like it later. He'd be stuck driving around with unsatisfactory vanity plates. He'd be a laughing stock. It was all he could think of. He canceled plans. His wife began to feel alienated. They fought. He moved to a hotel. He slept under a tree hoping beyond hope that an apple would fall and hit him on the head and grace him with a "eureka moment"

But it didn't come.

His regular old plates haunted him - taunted him. MTR 342....MTR 342!!

SHUT UP!

He huddled in a ball in the back seat. The padded roof descended towards him. The faux leather seats grabbed him. The air freshener tickled his nostrils. Trembling hands reached for the handle. Finally, he spilled out onto the cold, hard pavement.

The next day he inched his way along the Q at the Department of Motor Vehicles, his eyes and expression as blank as a deer in headlights. He left clutching his new plates.

The subdued hues of the bluish vehicle pulled out of the lot.

"I'M TEAL"

Needless to say, one of life's greatest pleasures is having fascinating friends. I'm lucky to have as one of my most cherished the lovely Mary Jo Bole - rampant artist at large and professor at Ohio State University. I haven't seen her in a few years but managed to spend a good chunk of Saturday with her. In typical MJ style she kept us in constant motion most of the time - thrift stores, a quick visit to a real happening, yet out-of-the-way jazz club, some food, a visit to her studio(s). I was going to say that her work just gets better and better but then realized that I've always loved it so.....

I've never thought of art as a competitive endeavor but plenty of us, surely, at least occasionally, compare ourselves to others to try to see how we stack up. And taking a cue from my Nietzschean tendency to abhor modesty - with my monster truck-sized self-confidence and suspicion that I'm (again with the Nietzsche shit) some sort of Dionysion-Creative manifestation born unto the Earth, it's actually quite helpful for me to know someone like MJ who makes me seem about as creative as George Bush in comparison.

Here, I snapped her working on a project that she's been toiling over on and off for a few years. When you stand and watch her surveying and then placing those tiny slivers and shards of fractured ceramics with tweezers one at a time it makes you wonder just how talented (and insane) one has to be to pull such things off.

MJ, thanks for the hospitality and inspiration.

Maybe I'm not cut out for this biz. I sold the Apprehendrix here. I like her and all but it's not like she's my favorite. But when it came time to leave her today.....well, I kissed her on the lips twice and barely held back the tears. Will she be okay? Will she miss me? Can I go visit her?

I'm not a big fan of the art show comment book. For me it's too much like the internet. It gives people the chance to be wankers hiding behind anonimity. But the owner of the place thought I should have one and went and got a notepad for me etc so I relented.

And in the end most of the comments were very positive and enthusiastic which made me feel good. But still, I'd have to say that this one is my favorite: