Category: Stickin' it to the Man

“a healthy opposition to ideologies” (I miss my Dad today)

A link from Infoshop leads to a Web site called Little Black Cart, which is a combination blog and shopping cart for books, mags, ‘zines, etc.  Reading topics include: anarchism, communism, culture, green anarchy, situationist, insurrection, anarchy, autonomism, and surrealism.  Here is what they write about Situationists. The Situationists (or Sits) were artists from various countries who formed a group in the 1950s called The Situationist Internationale. They critiqued modern society in its various economic, social, and political aspects. They wanted to bring Marxism up to date, to construct a theory of what was going on in society that was…

2010 World Cup

In the last week, der Spiegel has featured a couple of articles regarding the multicultural diversity represented in the German football team as it moves into the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup.  Eleven of the 23 team members are of immigrant descent.  The Turkish-born German Mesut Özil scored a winning goal in the recent match against Ghana, which is said to have caused a great deal of controversy for many in Germany. Immigrants Defend the Flag while Left-Wing Germans Tear it Down (June 29) An Inspiring New Face for Germany’s National Team (July 2) Neo-Nazis Spurn Germany’s Diverse New…

Patterns

Having recently watched the 2008 film The Baader-Meinhof Complex, I may be starting to get a better understanding of the historical context and meaning of antifa stickers that I’ve found in Berlin during the last five years.  There is so much I don’t know (so much!) that I wouldn’t dream of trying to write anything in depth about it now.  Christopher Hitchens reviews the film here in his August 17, 2009 article in Vanity Fair (Stickerkitty’s birthday #51). I’ve also been reading Hans Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone, which tells the true story of a couple who distributed postcards advocating…

Kittens

By (another) coincidence, I came across Kittens, an English-speaking journal produced within a network called Junge Linke gegen Kapital und National (which translates to “Young Left against Principle and Nation”). Looks like more summer reading for Stickerkitty…. Here is a Junge Linke sticker I found in Berlin in 2003-04.  I’ll dig around for others more recent.

Summer solstice

I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell I am doing (at least with my sticker project).  Since 2004, I’ve been to Berlin six times and made dozens of trips to NYC, plus individual trips to San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Munich, and Madrid (mostly work-related except for NYC).  Students, alumni, and friends have picked up stickers in Amsterdam, Rome, and several cities in eastern Europe.  A couple of thousand stickers by now.  A growing database.  An exhibition in 2006.  A blog with musings and lots of links.  Two conference papers.  A few sticker contacts.  A…

MediaSpree protest June 5, 2010

During the last day of our study trip to Berlin, Spencer and I found ourselves at the front end of a street protest against MediaSpree.  Well, the front end of 1/2 of the protest, as it turned out that two groups merged together from both sides of the Spree.  MediaSpree involves the commercial development of property along the river in the Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg districts of former east Berlin that is dislocating neighborhoods, squats, local businesses, etc. with big multinational shopping malls, office buildings, MTV, Universal Studios, and the controversial o2 arena.  People are calling it a new wall to…

Back home + time to restore some honor!!!

While there is still so much to think and write about regarding the recent trip to Berlin, I want to add this post about the upcoming Restoring Honor rally in DC this summer.  Check out the rip-off of Shepard Fairey’s rip-off design (below).  Hello, post-modernism!  Is that what you’d call this?  I can’t keep track anymore, much less tag this post….  Lately it seems that “Stickin’ it to the Man” combined with “The Man Stickin’ it Back” seems to work in a number of situations.  Not sure what that means quite yet, but it might be an unfortunate reality in…

Sold Out

I’m on the e-list to receive newsletter updates from Obey Giant, which occasionally features new prints for sale from Shepard Fairey.  I swear, by the time I click on Prints, every limited edition is already sold out.  The byline on the OG Web site says “Manufactured Dissent.”  Maunfactured is right.  This Man is making a factory fortune.