Monday, January 23, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
WWW.IRONICLAST.COM
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Hello! Just a quick note, Ironiclast has its own domain now.
Please make a note of it! No, really. I mean it!
Hello! Just a quick note, Ironiclast has its own domain now.
www.ironiclast.com!
Please make a note of it! No, really. I mean it!
THIS DAY IN IRONICLASTIC HISTORY JAN 22ND
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On the morning of January 22, 1987, State Treasurer Robert Budd Dwyer called a press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for what was thought to be a public statement about his conviction on bribery charges. Instead, he held a very public suicide in front of the press with cameras rolling. It is one of the most horrifying incidents of public suicide ever captured on tape.
Dwyer was guilty of soliciting a $300,000 dollar bribe in exchange for steering S4.6 million in public money toward a California based technologies company called Computer Technology Associates run by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania native John Torquato Jr. The Governor's office was tipped off to the bribe by an anonymous letter. Charges were filed and it was all downhill from there.
So, on the morning of January, 22nd, Budd Dwyer stepped up to the podium to hold a press conference. Appearing what was described by others as "nervous" and "agitated," he read a prepared statement declaring his innocence and thanking god for the happy years he had lived. He further stated he would not step down as Treasurer...
Then, he stopped reading...
Moments later, he called to three of his staffers and handed them sealed envelopes. One was a suicide note to his wife, a second was said to contain an organ donor card and other pieces of information and a third that contained a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey.
He was systematic about this, taking time to make sure the letters would get to their destination. Then he pulled a .357 Magnum from a manila envelope and made an announcement to the crowd amid audible gasps and screams. He said, "Please leave the room if this will offend you."
Then, when it became clear that people intended to stop him, he put the barrel of the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
All of this was captured by tv cameras in the room. In fact, one cameraman decided to get a close up of Budd Dwyer's dead body gushing blood from his nasal cavity in a long, uninterrupted stream. Ironically, audio from the tape captured the voice of a man telling people that there was nothing to see.
The gruesome and undeniably disturbing footage of this press conference turned suicide is readily available on the internet. If you choose to seek it out, it is not something you will likely forget any time soon. In the years before the digital age, VHS tape copies of the footage were traded by gore fanatics and the morbidly curious.
In case you were wondering. That was 25 years ago to the day. Had he chose to serve his prison term, he would still have thirty years left on his sentence.
On the morning of January 22, 1987, State Treasurer Robert Budd Dwyer called a press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for what was thought to be a public statement about his conviction on bribery charges. Instead, he held a very public suicide in front of the press with cameras rolling. It is one of the most horrifying incidents of public suicide ever captured on tape.
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| Well, listen Bob, I'm quite sure all of this will be over soon... |
So, on the morning of January, 22nd, Budd Dwyer stepped up to the podium to hold a press conference. Appearing what was described by others as "nervous" and "agitated," he read a prepared statement declaring his innocence and thanking god for the happy years he had lived. He further stated he would not step down as Treasurer...
Then, he stopped reading...
Moments later, he called to three of his staffers and handed them sealed envelopes. One was a suicide note to his wife, a second was said to contain an organ donor card and other pieces of information and a third that contained a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey.
 |
| "Please leave the room if this will offend you." |
The gruesome and undeniably disturbing footage of this press conference turned suicide is readily available on the internet. If you choose to seek it out, it is not something you will likely forget any time soon. In the years before the digital age, VHS tape copies of the footage were traded by gore fanatics and the morbidly curious.
In case you were wondering. That was 25 years ago to the day. Had he chose to serve his prison term, he would still have thirty years left on his sentence.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
KY DATE NIGHT
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Strolling through my local Rite-Aid, I noticed a big display on the end cap for KY products. Not exactly where you might expect them to be -- in the back down a quiet aisle where no one can see you buy them -- but a large display just the same.
What was staggering to me is the new marketing strategy KY has decided to employ to help sell more of their products. It's a promotion called Date Night. Pretty simple really. If you buy some KY, they will give you a coupon for $10 dollars off two movie tickets purchased through Moviefone.
Wowza. That's synergy. Do we really need to be enticed with cheap movie tickets to buy sexual lubricants? I don't really think so.
As I shopped for my regular supply of allergy histamine blockers, all I could think of was some guy coming in to Rite-Aid. He picks up a cheap bottle of wine. Maybe a nice card and some Date Night KY. Oh yeah, it's on....!
Yikes.
Strolling through my local Rite-Aid, I noticed a big display on the end cap for KY products. Not exactly where you might expect them to be -- in the back down a quiet aisle where no one can see you buy them -- but a large display just the same.
What was staggering to me is the new marketing strategy KY has decided to employ to help sell more of their products. It's a promotion called Date Night. Pretty simple really. If you buy some KY, they will give you a coupon for $10 dollars off two movie tickets purchased through Moviefone.
Wowza. That's synergy. Do we really need to be enticed with cheap movie tickets to buy sexual lubricants? I don't really think so.
As I shopped for my regular supply of allergy histamine blockers, all I could think of was some guy coming in to Rite-Aid. He picks up a cheap bottle of wine. Maybe a nice card and some Date Night KY. Oh yeah, it's on....!
Yikes.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
IF YOU SEE ONE ROBOT PORN DOCUMENTARY THIS YEAR
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Maybe he's trying to tell us that our lives have become too rote -- too programmed. Maybe he's warning us that even the most primal and satisfying aspect of being human will become wooden -- pardon the phrase -- and mundane. Perish the thought.
There is no question, Sullivan's work is thought provoking. It's bound to offend some, but that would hardly be the point.
The addition of robot babies to the scenario is both creepy and strangely compelling. Is this how robots learn? Is this a veiled warning about how we raise our children? A cautionary tale?
Then again -- maybe it's just about robot fucking.
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| Take it. Take it all! |
Filmmaker Matt Lenski has a new documentary about robot maker -- and all around odd ball -- Mike Sullivan's ten year odyssey to film a porno involving sex between robots. The doc entitled Meaning of Robots is only four minutes long, but offers a peek into the life of a man obsessed with small functioning robots, hundreds of them, that are designed to engage in an assortment of sex acts with one another.
Four minutes, you say? How long do you need? Robots are efficient.
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| This one has two cocks. |
Sullivan looks as eccentric and strange as you might imagine, but a close look at his creations reveals a man with a keen eye for detail and a passion for functionality and design.
What does it say about society? That sex has become such an integral part of our lives -- outside the bedroom -- that Sullivan's work reveals a mechanical, repetition that is both emotionless and without end. We're like zombies being sold a product or service on the backs of a lizard brain response that we can neither control, nor eradicate.
Maybe he's trying to tell us that our lives have become too rote -- too programmed. Maybe he's warning us that even the most primal and satisfying aspect of being human will become wooden -- pardon the phrase -- and mundane. Perish the thought.
There is no question, Sullivan's work is thought provoking. It's bound to offend some, but that would hardly be the point.
The addition of robot babies to the scenario is both creepy and strangely compelling. Is this how robots learn? Is this a veiled warning about how we raise our children? A cautionary tale?
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| The wheels on the bus go round and round... |
The trailer for the documentary is below.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
THE COWARD OF THE COSTA
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The $450 million dollar Costa Concordia cruise ship -- shown above on its side -- held over 4200 passengers. The death toll from its capsizing stands at 11 and the number of missing passengers has been dropped to 21.
The sheer scale of the ship was not evident to me until I saw the satellite photo above. Not only do you see how big the ship is, but also how close to the shore it came. A lot will be said and written about this disaster in the years to come, but one thing that will resonate with people more than anything are the actions of its captain Francesco Schettino, who chose to save himself while his ship and his passengers scrambled to reach the shore.
Extreme acts of cowardice are fascinating to me. It's not unlike how some people deal with grief. Some people bloom in those kinds of situations. They instinctively set aside their own feelings to help others. Some people, people like Captain Schettino, think only of their own feelings and well-being.
They're the kind of people that are no shows at funerals, or make them all about themselves, even when a dead relative lies cold in a box somewhere in the room.
Can we really blame him for not wanting to go down with the ship? No, not really. No one WANTS to go down with the ship, but there are miles of road in between facing the briny deep and running away like a coward. He could have stayed on the boat to help his passengers to safety. I have to believe that seeing the captain of a sinking ship -- while you're still on it -- gives you some comfort and maybe, just maybe, it gives you the strength to help others as well.
Well, he didn't -- and there's not much else that can be said about it. Investigations will be carried out, fingers will be pointed, people will be charged and jail sentences will be handed down. In the end, Captain Schettino may see the inside of an Italian prison cell.
The question that keeps dogging me is -- will he comfort himself knowing that over 4,000 passengers survived or will he focus on the vital few that he turned his back on. There is precedence for heroic action taking over basic human terror. It does happen.
Schettino is a pariah and will remain so until the day he dies. Whatever foolish decision making process that drove him to steer into a rock is probably the same one that forced him off the ship at the first sign of danger.
In Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a ship captain kills the bird of good omen - an albatross -- and dooms his ship and crew. For his crime, he was forced to wear the dead bird around his neck. These days, it represents a guilty burden from which we feel we may never be free.
Yeah. Pretty much sums it up.
The $450 million dollar Costa Concordia cruise ship -- shown above on its side -- held over 4200 passengers. The death toll from its capsizing stands at 11 and the number of missing passengers has been dropped to 21.
The sheer scale of the ship was not evident to me until I saw the satellite photo above. Not only do you see how big the ship is, but also how close to the shore it came. A lot will be said and written about this disaster in the years to come, but one thing that will resonate with people more than anything are the actions of its captain Francesco Schettino, who chose to save himself while his ship and his passengers scrambled to reach the shore.
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| "Is okay. I explain you what happened!" |
They're the kind of people that are no shows at funerals, or make them all about themselves, even when a dead relative lies cold in a box somewhere in the room.
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| I think maybe cappuccino. Per tutti! |
 |
| "Bring us the one they call Capt. Schettino.." |
The question that keeps dogging me is -- will he comfort himself knowing that over 4,000 passengers survived or will he focus on the vital few that he turned his back on. There is precedence for heroic action taking over basic human terror. It does happen.
Schettino is a pariah and will remain so until the day he dies. Whatever foolish decision making process that drove him to steer into a rock is probably the same one that forced him off the ship at the first sign of danger.
In Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a ship captain kills the bird of good omen - an albatross -- and dooms his ship and crew. For his crime, he was forced to wear the dead bird around his neck. These days, it represents a guilty burden from which we feel we may never be free.
 |
| "Instead of a cross, the albatross from around my neck was hung." |
Yeah. Pretty much sums it up.
HUMAN HEAD FOUND NEAR HOLLYWOOD SIGN
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Los Angeles police are investigating the death of an unknown Armenian man after finding his head in a bag in the hills near the 3200 block of Canyon Drive. The head was found by a couple of dogs on a hiking trail just beneath the Hollywood sign.
Over the years, the locals that live nearby have vocalized their concern over the tourist traffic jamming up the small winding streets that lead to the Hollywood sign. Even I've been yelled at by one or two of them. They've even gone so far as to photograph my car to dissuade me from stopping reminding me of the fact that they live on a private road.
That's usually when I tell them they bought a house on the only road up to the Hollywood Sign. What did they think was gonna happen? I'm guessing they're gonna get a lot more visitors now that the police are looking for the rest of this guy's body.
Los Angeles police are investigating the death of an unknown Armenian man after finding his head in a bag in the hills near the 3200 block of Canyon Drive. The head was found by a couple of dogs on a hiking trail just beneath the Hollywood sign.
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| What's in the box... what's in the BOX?! |
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| Nothing to see here...move along... |
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| Well, it doesn't say anything about murderers, so... |
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