Rise Above

I was looking through my favorite website
today like i always try to do and I stumbled upon
some witty graffiti done by an artist who goes by the
alias "ABOVE"

The first video is on the stock market and the second is about John McCain:


WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN from ABOVE on Vimeo.






TRICK OR TREATING AT THE McCAIN'S from ABOVE on Vimeo.



Personally I find them as out of the box methods of speaking out
which don't tell viewers "This means I'm mad", but
allows them to critically think. And anyone who can accomplish
that in today's world, I highly admire.

Should I ignore you?

I was just having a conversation with my younger brother because neither
of us were really in the mood to do our homework and we kind of
got carried away


he asked me:


" If I must be aware of my surroundings and contemplate
different perspectives and at the same time I should
surround myself with higher intellectuals, how
do I deal with the majority I cross paths with?"

I didn't know how to reply,

should we ignore the people who we believe to be
of no help to the evolving of our ideas?

or must we always be open to anyone's views?

But by anyone I mean that girl in your class you
know only watches Paris Hilton series on MTV and
describes everything as "cool"

I mean, should these kind of people deserve a minute
of our attention?

The World Is in Your Hands

After class today I went up to my friend Virginia
and asked her what she planned to do later in life


It's kinda of sad to say, but we both don't have a
clue

We know what we want, she wanted a coffee shop, I
want an art studio

The thing is how do we get there?

I mean there both professions that are not supported
by our vast economy, I know for a fact that in
my adventure to accomplish what I love there
will be times where I probably will have little to eat,
a cramped place to sleep, and no hope what so ever.

But I'm perfectly fine with that, in fact, I think I'm looking
forward to living instead of talking about living.
I want those experiences, I want to face the world with my fist
held high in the air


We both came to the conclusion, my friend and I, that as long
as we can have enough money to do what we love, we'll be happy.


Maybe that will force us to take 2 years of community college
because we don't have the money to go to where we want to study,
we'll probably work our asses off, but to achieve what we have been
dreaming about, any sacrifice seems so minuscule I'm willing to take one the world.


I still remember the day I realized that I wanted to go to
Pratt Institute of art and design, it felt like a weight had been
lifted off of my chest, I knew what i wanted, there wasn't a drop
of doubt in my mind. The feeling of not knowing how to get there,
that to enjoy a decent life one must conform to the practical
like doctors, lawyers, and politicians... it's just irrational

Why should I do something because of my monetary gain?
Who decided what i should learn and what a shouldn't?

I'm going to go out and be who I want to be, an artist
with my own gallery down in Arch Street in Philadelphia's
Chinatown


How much are you willing to give to get to where you want to be?

Are you willing to change you aspirations if it means
earning more money, and does that define you as a sell out?

well...

What do you call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, magnanimity, forgiveness? Different results of the one master impulse: the necessity of securing one's self-approval.

Selling Out The Revolution

Raffaella Delle Donne is an amazing writer and activist that contributed the Faith47 feature to our current special African Art (November 2008) issue. Raffaella currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa and recently wrote about her experience of being charged with defacing public property for spraying “free art” on the bridges of “the Mother City.” It’s pretty crazy stuff. Raffaella explains:
“A couple of years ago, in protest against the barrage of proposed by-laws that boasted a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to all our social ills by banning everything from graffiti to the homeless, a friend and I were charged with defacing public property for spraying ‘free art’ on the bridges of the Mother City.
“Because we were middle-class whities and upstanding members of the community, our little escapade got lots of media attention (isn’t graffiti code language for gangsters?) and fuelled the debate around the shortsightedness of Draconian laws that threatened to turn two already marginalized groups into criminals: the youth and the poor.”
The entire piece is enthralling, and provides a much-needed look at foreign government’s policies on graffiti and street art. If the up cropping of zero tolerance laws frustrates you, you’re not the only one. “Our protest wasn’t just about graffiti, we were demanding to know why our leaders aren’t providing viable, long-term solutions to uplift the communities that need it most.”
Read Raffaella’s Selling(Out) the Revolution on her blog at mouth-of-word.blogspot.com
Image from Raffaella’s blog courtesy Adbusters.


When would you consider someone's protests as taken too far?
Why would you not support another person's fight to get there
point across? If more of us out there actually took the time
to listen to people, don't you think that a smaller amount of them
would be forced to take there fights to extremes that involve violence?
Or do you believe that anger, and causing conflict are the only methods
of actually bringing attention from an other wise vegetative state audience
that is our society?

Reality of a Figment of our Imagination?

The question of nature over nurture constantly arises
in my psychology class

The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature", i.e. nativism, or philosophical empiricism, innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture") in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.

others believe that the very question is out dated because in life we
have found that a bit of both is needed


what I have always wondered is, can the belief in a higher
power be considered as a pert of nurture, something that is
learned due to the way society thinks? Or is it naturally wired
into your brains, thus making the idea of "god" nothing more
than the result hormones and neurons influencing our minds,
which we lazily leave on autopilot most of the time?

New America

do you believe it's sensible for America to search for
a new form of currency to solve it's monetary problems?