Got an illo in this week's The Stranger about The Socialist Party in Seattle. For inspiration, I looked sat Russian Revolution posters and a paintings of Lenin.
Check out the article on the web here
HORATIO REGINARI :
MAGICIAN & MASTER OF OBSCURITY
by Daria Sellon McQuade
Magican Horatio Reginari is a close kept secret among the magician community. He was born in Merrick, Long Island in 1942 to Margaret and Daniel Reginari. Little is known about Horatio’s father, other than that he was a tall man who enjoyed staring contests. Horatio’s mother was a baker and television enthusiast.
Hoartio’s remarkable talent for magic was evident at a very early age; at 5 years old he was preformed his first card trick, in which he levitated a pen in order to sign his name to a birthday card intended for his Aunt Irene. The family was ecstatic at this amazing feat! Never again would they be burdened with tedious and oppressive card-signing. He even manipulated the pen to write “xoxoxo” with an exclamation point.
His next trick involved breaking a glass jar full of quarters by throwing it against the wall. This wasn’t met with quite the same level of admiration but was impressive none-the-less. At age ten years old, he was capable of holding his breath for a full 7 minutes with the intention of preforming a “fall through the ice while playing with your friends” maneuver. After repeated attempts, it turned out that a young lad, Percy Coburn fell through the ice instead and Horatio was forever scarred by the boy eclipsing his feat by actual drowning. Nothing could top that, and the tragedy was spoke of for years. Horatio decided that he would have to hone other skills in order to become a master of magicianery. He practiced the art of mind over matter by strapping himself into a chair very close to a plate of cookies after not eating for several hours. For dexterity, he balanced books on his head and walked along a clothesline whilst hanging clothes out to dry. The wind nearly knocked him over, yet his feet remained planted firmly on the ground! The incessant training continued. He strapped a 100 pound weight to his chest and then glued himself to a scale, eating nothing but corn for two weeks. This was followed by a new twist on an old classic – the “bullet catching trick”. In Horatio’s case, he decided that catching a bullet in his teeth was too ordinary and had been done to death.
To be continued…..
4 of Diamonds, Auction Rate Securities "Ghost Money"
Good as cash, except when you need it most.
The first auction rate security for the tax-exempt market was introduced by Goldman Sachs in 1988.[1] However, the security was invented by Ronald Gallatin at Lehman Brothers in 1984.[2]
Auctions are typically held every 7, 28, or 35 days; interest on these securities is paid at the end of each auction period. Certain types of daily auctioned ARSs have coupons paid on the first of every month. There are also other, more unusual, reset periods, including 14 day, 49 days, 91 days, semi-annual and annual. Non-daily ARS settle on the next business day, daily ARS settle the same day.
As bank loans became more expensive, the auction market became increasingly attractive to issuers seeking the low cost and flexibility of variable rate debt. Buyers received a slightly higher interest and an apparent assurance of liquidity through the auction process.
By early 2008 the ARS market had grown to over $200 billion, with roughly half of the securities owned by corporate investors. Because of their complexity and the minimum denomination of $25,000, most holders of auction rate securities are institutional investors and high net worth individuals.
In February 2008, the auction market failed, and most auction rate securities have been frozen since then, with holders unable to dispose of their securities. Investment banks that participated in the distribution and marketing have agreed to repurchase around $50 billion in securities from investors, including municipalities, under duress of investigations by U.S. state attorneys general.[4]
Student loan auction rate securities (SLARS) make up a large percentage of the ARS market.
Jack of Hearts -Lloyd Blankfein CEO of Goldman Sachs, Vampire Squid King. Admitted Goldman did things that ‘were clearly wrong and we regret’ but hasn’t changed behavior. Claimed to be doing “god’s work”.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511
Matt Taibbi analyzes the testimony of Lloyd Blankfein and other Goldman executives before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Carl Levin of Michigan. Taibbi carefully documents enough detail to conclude that: “This isn't just a matter of a few seedy guys stealing a few bucks. This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it. But the prominence of this bank and the high-profile nature of its confrontation with a powerful Senate committee makes this a political story as well. If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are.
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The thing is about the 2008 collapse, even now, years later, though I considered myself semi-intelligent, I still don't really know what the hell happened. Hopefully this deck will help myself and others gain a bit more insight into the intricacies of the collapse that just about destroyed our economy.
52 SHADES of GREED
Art Directors Marc Scheff & Daniel Nyari
This project is many things, but in the barest form is a deck of playing cards bearing illustrations of the people and financial institutions whose lust for money took the rest of us for a ride toward economic collapse. The four illustrations I did are Countrywide (Ace of Clubs)), The SEC (2 of Spades), Lloyd Blankenfein (CEO Goldman Sachs) (Jack of Hearts) and Auction Rate Securities (4 of Diamonds).
The plan is to cut 1000 decks to hand them out around Wall St. on September 17th , the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. To do this we have just announced a fundraiser which is going extremely well! Everyone fueling the project with at least a $25 contribution will get a deck but we would like to raise enough to enable us to stage events related to art and financial education.
HP Lovecraft - The Granddaddy of Modern Day SciFi/Horror
I am helping out a Baltimore based film production company, Midnight Crew Studios by donating this 11x17" giclée print to the cause for this movie...
I was recently asked to contribute 4 illustrations to this really cool project called 52 Shades of Greed. The website is launching right now http://52shadesofgreed.com/ Check it out!
Ace of Clubs - Countrywide
The biggest and most predatory major subprime originator.
The project is many things, but in the barest form is a deck of playing cards bearing illustrations of the people and financial institutions whose lust for money took the rest of us for a ride toward economic collapse.2 of Spades - SEC, Security and Exchange Commission.
Weak regulator which routinely destroyed records of investigations, sometimes right before the investigator went to work for the regulated.
"Wall Street, NYC – The first Tuesday in September is traditionally a bacchanalian holiday on Wall Street. Suit-and-tie revelers engorge themselves on whatever sentiment may have been aroused for the working and middle classes on Labor Day. It is not a place for delicate sensibilities, and citizens unfamiliar with this side of town are usually advised to steer clear.This first Tuesday in September, however, may be different.While Wall Street gets back to the seedy business of—as one Bank Executive famously put it—“screwing people”, Occupy Wall Street and a team of professional illustrators are drawing up a plan to pull back the curtain on their perversions.
Marc Scheff (Art Director), asked our interviewer, “Ever seen Dick Fuld or the infamous Kathryn Wylde at work?” He continued, “I’m not surprised. It drew an NC-17 rating.”
Rumors are now circulating about which twisted financial instruments are to be depicted on the cards. Many expect the appearance of the Collateralized Debt Obligation, which first gained notoriety for bringing the housing market to its knees and laying bare the US economy. We all wanna know who screwed us and how they did it. And we want pictures. The cards will direct the curious to a website to get the dirty details on each Shade of Greed. We hope they will shed light on these dark alley affairs."
The plan is to cut 1000 decks to hand out on September 17th, the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.
To do this we have just announced a fundraiser. Everyone fueling the project with at least a $25 contribution
will get a deck. We would like to raise enough to enable us to stage events related to art and financial education.Check out this sweet video explaining the whole shebang!
