Thanks Seestah, for forwarding me this interesting article about historic preservation in England...of Johnny Rotten graffiti.
At least, that's how it's being described. Front Man always gets the credit. And, of the images popping up for these charicatures, of course his weighs the most kilobytes. McClaren, the band's manager, is the smallest of the personnel I can find. No Cook and only a video glimpse of the conveniently labeled "Fatty Jones." Johhny saw himself as some kind of muppet. Eyes sly and at the same time more big-eye cute (this was the '70s after all) than anyone else's. Like Sid's:
Sid's is hilarious. Another muppet, but instead of being cuddly he's Harvey Pekar on a bad day. Or, subtract the nose-eyes-ears, and you find that the "charicature" was superimposed on an already existing graffitum: a medical illustration of Sid's undercarriage from directly beneath. That there's rock star taint at the bottom.
Some people say Sid didn't have much to live for, and after seeing this, I can see how you might think that, but don't discount the malevolent Front Man, upset about his new bassist's burgeoning popularity. Lydon walks in and sees that Sid is already being immortalized, because surely, the National Trust will someday turn this into a museum. Infuriated, he transformed Sid, drew himself as the lovable one, the other guys as jokes, and the manager like some wicked bird clutching money. See?
So now, there's a professor at York who has published an article in the esteemed journal Antiquity about the archaeology of these drawings and their significance to English heritage. I cannot or willnot pay to view the article, so I can only hope the authors' caught the Vicious palimpsest, because that's some good superposition there.
Most of the media interest in this focuses on the professor saying that these are as important as Tut's tomb or even the early Beatles tapes. They mention that the good Doctor believes the graffiti'd flat is eligible for formal recognition, complete with blue plaque, but neglect to mention that he considers the current DIY preservation may be best continued in the punk mode--no bleedin' sign.
On the other hand: an article in Antiquity, academic interest, the historic preservation community acknowledging and sometimes embracing a few monuments to protest movements. God Save the Queen, and National Trust Save the Sex Pistols. The Great Swindle continues.
All the more beautiful because the irony swings both ways. Anarchy, "I wanna destroy," eh? Not only did you not bring down the system, it is stronger than ever and amuses itself by treating your art as collectibles to buy. Coopted even more than imagined when you started doing business with McClaren and embraced Front Manhood, right Johnny?
This blog aims to be about culture in the anthropological sense (if not the academic kind), instead of the high Culture that people tend to blend with the Arts. Observations about how people behave, how we live in this place and time, and the stories we tell all the time and to each other, as opposed to how they sound through scripts and screens. I did this a lot in Mojourner Truth, my original blog, where the word "culture" looms largest in the keyword cloud. I included a grab bag of eclecticisms there, and I suppose here there may be less politics and economics.
But I was going to write about percentages. Our culture is obsessed with them. Fantasy leagues and political polls are driven by them. When we are told to look into the eyes of science, the irises are pie charts. Americans habitually answer the necessarily imprecise question of "How sure are you?" with a percentage. This month, popular frustration with the oligarchs has sprung a new term into the media and popular culture: "The 99%"
I've generally been most interested in the cultures of the 99%, and occasionally rant about archaeologists and writers who dote on the other 1%. Yeah, I had a great time mapping a chiefly compound in Kona, but it does not hold my sustained interest the way humble homes and taro patches do. In the here and now, it's the same.
"I am the 99%" and "Occupy Your Town" fit handily on signs, buttons, and bumper stickers, not to mention newscast and web graphics. I know that locally there is some objection to the Occupy label. Military forces occupy, often unjustly, and there are native people who are sick of occupation. But, the logo files are out there, and it's hard to re-brand a groundswell already in motion. Still, Olympia has been occupied by regular people for a long time, and compared to the rest of the country, big corporations occupy ground a bit more nervously and surreptitiously, and I'd rather call myself a 99-er than an Occupier.
But last night, after dark but not late, I visited Occupy Olympia on their first day. They're in Sylvester Park instead of the Capitol grounds, which is cool because it's more a part of our city, and besides it resonates with the historical capitol, in a time when democracy operated closer to the ground.
The percentage out there was less than 0.5% of the general population, but much higher of Evergreen College. The largest percentage of people were dancing, and another large contingent was gathered around receiving instruction and handouts on how to deal with police (who were nearby in numbers approaching 1.5% of the Sylvester population, and were neither dancing nor arresting). A significant percentage of the crowd was engaged in milling about, and all the signs I saw were on the ground leaning against something. About 1% was engaged in fretting that the small but unknown percentage smoking pot would delegitimize the serious political message of the movement, while 0.5% did an amazing hula-hoop demonstration that I am sure no corporate executive will ever match. Maybe 3-4% were occupied at the first aid and kitchen areas, and 0.0% were at a table with pamphlets. I was in the <5% who were older than 30, and among those in the <50% not decked out in activist wear. I'm guessing that somewhere north of 50% of the Occupiers figured I was an untalented undercover cop.
What percent of the crowd I saw stayed all night? Brisk and dewy beats cold and rainy, but I'm guessing that the last bus back to Evergreen may have been operating at a higher percentage of filled seats than usual. On the national level, will "The 99%" become another hollow label, or will we stop the bus and replace the driver, change the route, insist on a culture that treats us all more fairly?
That's probably a topic for the political blog I have yet to start. For this one, I'll drop by Sylvester now and then to see where evolution takes the tribe in the square, and chime in now and then with whatever other cultural things strike my fancy. (But not too fancy,...I wanna remain in the 99%)
