I agree with nick, but…

I don’t agree with copyright infringement.

The latest article/free downloadable poster from the Guardian - which asks if Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is the British Obama - is almost enough to put me off reading the paper forever.

Yesterday began with London Mayor/Tory toff/Telegraph columnist Boris Johnson extolling his party leader, David Cameron, who had ‘aced every question’ during last week’s leaders’ debate, and carried on with an anecdote of how he once bet £1,000 that his party would win the next election. Mayor Boris even suggested someone had spiked the water supply, to explain so much new support for Clegg.

Now, my feelings toward Cameron/the Tories is largely based on the fact that Cameron chose Take That’s Gary Barlow to back his campaign/earn some stripes with the kids. (Obama had the Boss, even George W. Bush managed to get Britney Spears onside… but Gary Barlow? What could Cameron know about young people if he’s calling Take That for help?).

I didn’t agree with Boris, but his article was far more entertaining than Oliver Burkeman’s Guardian piece, which asks:

Is Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg an Obama-style hero for our times, a Churchillian leader or a popular rebel in the mould of Che Guevara? Perhaps he’s just another great British underdog

Poor Che, victim of so many crimes against popular culture, he doesn’t deserve the commercial fate that has been thrust upon him by souvenir shops, college kids and Guardian’s political team.

As for Clegg in the iconic* Hope picture, I sincerely hope the Guardian commissioned Shephard Fairey to re-imagine his earlier work, or better yet, consulted the Associated Press. They would’ve had to, right? Considering that Fairey spent most of last year in court fighting the AP over copyright infringement for his Hope picture of Obama, the Guardian must’ve checked their sources.

In the Fairey vs Associated Press case, AP believed the popular street artist used Mannie Garcia’s photo of Obama (above right) as the basis of the Hope picture, effectively replicating the image in a ‘paint by numbers’ without obtaining proper copyright permission. Fairey actually filed a pre-emptive lawsuit citing ‘fair use’ of the photo, which he transformed into a:

…stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message.

(Bless him, he might actually be stretching the terms ‘radical’ in this sense).

Fairey also claimed he used the Obama picture above, with George Clooney, as his reference. This was a pertinent point in the case, as it meant Fairey’s close-up Hope image involved more original input (that’s without even mentioning the fact that he added a badge to Obama’s lapel!).

The lawsuit took an odd turn in October when Fairey admitted that he had in fact lied about using the Clooney picture as a reference, and had even gone as far as creating new documents in his defence. The case continues, obviously without any limits on further ‘fair use’ of the AP/Garcia photo if national papers such as the Guardian are free to re-imagine it once again.

This latest (mis)use, in Burkeman’s article on the ‘Clegginess of Clegg’, is part of a selection of images - Clegg as Obama, Che, Churchill. Fortunately, Burkeman manages to bring the Cleggomania back to reality, before it gets too out of hand:

Nick Clegg looks kind of normal, he wears normal-looking clothes, he has some good ideas, along with a few that are a bit rubbish; he might do OK, but if we’re honest, probably not brilliantly, and he has provoked a low-key outburst of restrained hysteria.

So maybe it was all a bit tongue-in-cheek after all. Still, enough with recycling these old images of politicos - I think we’re ready for a new icon.

Read the Guardian article or Mayor Boris in the Telegraph.

<Nick Clegg from the Guardian and Hope/original AP pictures from PD online, who’ve been following the lawsuit for months and have plenty of juicy details>.

*I know, mum, ‘icon’ should be reserved for religious reasons. It’s late, ok?

Remember when kim gordon was cool?

I do. She’s in Sonic Youth. She’s married to Thurston Moore. She started the X-Girl fashion label, for God’s sake. And she co-directed the Breeders’ Cannonball video, below, with Spike Jonze.

Now she’s focussing on her art again, with a new exhibition at New York’s John McWhinnie at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller & Art Gallery. The recent opening brought in all kinds of New York cool – think Chloë Sevigny, Terry Richardson, that girl from Gang Gang Dance, and somehow, even James Frey* got an invite.

Gordon’s Noise Paintings feature the names of noise and no-wave bands, with the gallery exalting:

Loosely painted words have dripping edges and bleeding contours that threaten to disrupt or annihilate the sense within. There is the feel of un-stylised urban graffiti, of the anonymous, spontaneous scrawls encountered in the profane world.

Is this the best she could do? Lord knows the gallery did their best to find some meaning in the whole thing, but two often incongruous words in dripping paint? It seems she’s been working on the series for a while, with similar themes evident in a Paris exhibition curated by Rodarte in Oct 09:

I do like Pussy Galore. Still…the actual quality is somewhat lacking - every letter seems forced, the drips contrived. But what do I know? I guess I just expect more from ONE OF THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF SONIC YOUTH.

See Gordon’s earlier work with Spike Jonze:

*James Frey. You know, the guy who wrote a memoir, that wasn’t really a memoir, so people got upset and the publishers offered a refund, but only if they had their original receipt + page 163 of the book + a sworn statement that they felt deceived + a pledge of allegiance to the Church of Oprah, who confronted him on the whole flimflam.

And now that his book’s touted as a ‘semi-fictional memoir’, Frey’s getting invited to Kim Gordon exhibition openings and laughing all the way to the bank.

Read more on Chloë Sevigny on through being cool.

How to look good (& eat well) in space

Know how hard it is to find stylish clothes for work? Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki certainly does.

In order to look her best on her 13-day mission to the International Space Centre, Yamazaki commissioned Tae Ashida to design her a new work outfit.  Like all good fashion, Ashida’s look (below left) reflects earlier designs (right), only with more detail and less fabric.

There’s a chance Yamazaki may have been keen to save space in her suitcase, as she also packed a miniature koto (Japanese harp). My favourite tweeter Astro_Soichi has a traditional flute up there, so I’m guessing they’re planning some sort of intergalactic Japanese jam.

With ramen, no doubt, as Astro_Soichi was instrumental in testing the original zero-gravity ramen back in 2005 when he was preparing for a US Spaceship Discovery flight. Space Ram, as it’s called, has thick soup and noodle balls that can be eaten straight from the pouch (without needing a straw like most astro food). The astro ramen comes in four flavours – soy sauce, miso, curry and tonkotsu (pork broth), which is more than most UK supermarket have on offer.

These astronaut/designer and astronaut/noodle collaborations highlight how things have progressed since the early days of space exploration. According to the website for Space Food Sticks (remember them?), a 1960s headline sums it up best:

Space Food Hideous - But it Costs a Lot.

Judging by the picture at the top, at least they had the fashion sorted.

**More Tae Ashida at Japan Fashion Week.

Sin in Space cover from Jbergen, Ashida design from AFP, ramen (not actual space ram as the pouch looks pretty nasty) from Rakka & awesome Kool-Aid shot from xraydelta.

The oriental yeti/when wombats attack

So hunters in Sichuan province think they have discovered a new mammal, dubbed the ‘Oriental yeti’. A photo of the beast – resembling a hairless bear with a kangaroo-like tail – has been splashed across the UK papers with skeptics declaring its merely a belated April Fools’ hoax, or a civet with mange. You remember civets, they’re the most respected coffee farmers in the world*.

You may also remember mange, as it was blamed for wild wombat behaviour earlier this morning. It appears a man stood on a wombat, who then dragged him to the ground for some ol’ fashioned fisticuffs, before said man grabbed an axe and overcame the crazed marsupial. Only in Perth could this happen.

As for the ‘yeti’, only science will reveal his true identity. Perhaps we can look to Lu Chin, the hunter responsible for bringing him in, who suggested one theory:

There are local legends of a bear that used to be a man and some people think that’s what we caught.

Okay. Either way, the guy’s going to need a new moniker as ‘Oriental’ always sounds a bit colonial. It’s strange how the British don’t seem to think so. Over here, Orientals are Asians and Asians are Indians…and an Oriental yeti may actually be a Chinese man.

The mind boggles.

*One cup for £50! Good thing the money was going to charity.

Due to how sad and sickly the caged ‘Oriental yeti’ looks, and the general tone of this site, I much prefer Formatbrain’s version of the mysterious yeti, above, while the buck-toothed wombat (who was not involved in today’s incident) is care of Feverblue.