Celine Dion

Is this grotesque behavior? I'm not really sure what you would call it.

excess II

i also found myself thinking a great deal about the questions of resource distribution over the break. i've tended to do so at most large family gatherings of feasting for the past couple years (much to my family's dismay.) my younger sister and i brought up global warming at thanksgiving dinner, which wasn't appreciated ("but even WITH obama we're approaching the point of positive feedback cycles!" "girls, please")
my tendency to mistake celebration for gluttony was only exasperated by the fact that this year my grandparents decided to take the whole family to DISNEY WORLD!!! i brought my video camera, thinking it would be a gold mine for "candid" shooting... rudely filming people without asking their permission. however, i was overcome by a pervasive sense of something like fear of disney repercussions and only shot from the safety of the balconies of the hotel.
i think disney world is a perfect example of excess. i know this is obvious, but the emphasis is on "perfect." it's perfect because no one questions the system of control, and d-dubs manages to maintain a flawless simulacra of disney reality.
i found this on a disney world chat board:

Protein Spill?
Park: ALL Submitted by: Michelle
Submitted on: 11/14/2003
Confirmed by: BoobBunny

Did you know that vomit is called a protein spill in disney world!
BooboBunny:This is true. If a guest or cast member vomits, a cast member is supposed to call a custodian to clean up a Protien Spill. Just one of the ways Disney preserves the show!!!!




...note the quadruple exclamation points.

i will write more on disney world later. here's some homies enjoying dw's trademark turkey legs.

Excess

A lot of what I believe to be grotesque deals with excess. I've written about it on the blog a couple times before, but I wanted to expand on the idea of excess here and perhaps give more of an idea of my qualms with excess and excessive people.

Before this, I have mentioned excess in reference to a youtube video, and a couple times in class as part of my silkscreen project. As I'm dealing with excess quite a bit in my book project, I've been thinking about what it means to be excessive, and was reminded this past weekend. This Thanksgiving I spent the weekend in Jersey in a house I do not usually spend time in. The dinner was quite delicious and I had a great time, but I was distracted by the large amount of "stuff" lying around. There were so many pillows on the couch that a person couldn't sit down. There were video games lying around unopened. And every couple hours or so, someone would make a mention of Christmas and the gifts stemming from the upcoming holiday season. I find it grotesque that people convince themselves that they need so many things, when millions of people actually need food and water (i.e. victims of the attacks in Nigeria this past weekend). I don't know when or how people will realize that this excessive reaction will end - when people will stop consuming at such a rate that the cost of the consumption is the health of the planet we're living on.

As a side note, a lot of these feelings are a result of me watching Wall E this weekend. You guys should watch it. It's really a good time. But maybe some people find the irony of me talking about excess and watching movies in the same breathe grotesque? Please comment, I'm very interested in the idea that all art may be naturally excessive.

Illustrated Fine Printing: Whittington & Matrix in America

An exhibition at the Center for Book Arts, closes Dec. 6.

Corset Piercings

Corset piercings are really grotesque. And kinda tacky. I like corsets as much as the next person, so I could potentially see the draw, but then I look at pictures of everyone with a corset piercing and shudder.

Memorial Photography

Memorial photography, or the practice of photographing the recently deceased, is something that I think becomes increasingly grotesque as I am further removed from the subject of the image. The images portray death at what seems like the moment it has arrived, and without the emotional attachment or memory of the deceased that the original consumers of the photos may have had, I am put at extreme unease. This death feels far more real than death portrayed in modern news or entertainment media because the love of that person is reflected in not only preserving his/her memory by means of photography, but also the delicate handling of dress and pose.


Paul Frecker Collection

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation

Memento Mori

The Thanatos Archive

John Cage's 4'33"

A show created by the people who have gathered to experience 4 minutes, 33 seconds together. Silence, here, is art because of the background noise, shuffling, coughing, etc. Otherwise, it can be representative of hesitation, disconnection or disagreement. Small talk fills voids, but we all see through that superficiality. It is the source of today's ultimate discomfort.