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SORE ABOUT CENSORSHIP
Let me first express my excitement and grati
tude concerning having my artwork featured
on the cover of Flagpole [Aug. 2]. This positive
experience, however, was quickly countered with
negative and disheartening one when I was
asked to remove one of my paintings from the
Mercury Lounge (after being invited to show
there) due to its subject matter. The work, titled
•Surrounded by Silence," juxtaposes a British
gangster brandishing a handgun with images of a
male lion and his fresh kill In the background, a
butcher's wares hang in a refrigerated room.
My intention in assembling this group of
images was to arouse questions concerning the
glamorization of violence in mass media today.
The scenes create an interplay between "natural"
slaughter in the animal kingdom and "unnatural*
sU^gnter amongst human beings. I was shocked
and angered that the Mercury Lounge found the
work unsuitable for public display, when the
painting itself is no more gruesome than a veal
battle on an episode of "Iron Cher and no more
bloody than a trip to the local deli or a late
night re-run of "Wild Kingdom."
The reasoning behind their decision was that
the bar's older clientele might find the piece of
fensive. (Their website advocates an atmosphere
"geared toward adults* instead of a "young
student crowd.") However, I find it ironic that a
bar whose mission statement promotes a "cosmo
politan [sic] setting," and "dynamic art shows"
inspired by the owner's trip to Europe would, in
the censoring of my work, prove themselves to
be so short-sighted.
Jeremy Hughes
Athens
CENSORSHIP RESPONSE
Here at the Mercury Lounge, we'd like to sin
cerely apologize to Jeremy and the rest of the
thriving community of talented artists in Athens.
As an avid reader, I am a devout enemy of cen
sorship and am disappointed to think that the
Mercury would be misconstrued in anyone's mind
as practitioners of that sort of ignorance. I am
sorry that Jeremy feels that he was "censored."
We like Jeremy and we like his work (this was
the second time his artwork has hung here) and
were chagrined that patrons (three groups) com
plained about the disturbing nature of the piece.
We are an establishment that tries to be very
active in promoting local artists and musicians,
and are proud to provide a space to sell and
showcase works. In fact, three pieces have sold
this past week. Because we are not a gallery, we
ask only that the artists donate 10 percent of
their sales to Nugi's Space. We also give a por
tion of sales from the opening to Hug's Space,
believing the more you help out in a community,
the more the entire community succeeds.
Having said that, I will reiterate that we are
not a gallery. Trying to create a relaxing and
elegant environment for our guests is our num
ber-one priority and I will put the comfort of my
patrons above an individual's ego every single
time. If I didn't do that, we'd be out of business
and local musicians and artists would lose what
support we can give.
Michelle C. Allen
Mercury Lounge
GEORGIA AQUARIUM
I enjoyed the piece on the Georgia Aquarium
and agree with its assessment of the whole
Disneyfied experience ["Aquaria Nouveau," Aug.
91. It's entirely emblematic of their approach
that they selected a Garibaldi, native to the
Pacific coast, as their spokesfish when "Deepo"
could have been one of several orange darters
that are native to Georgia. I thought the com
parison with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago was
a little misplaced, however. I haven't been there
in years, but, as I remember, the ooh-ahh color
ful fish portion of the Shedd is on an entirely
different scale than Georgia's. It's true that the
Georgia Aquarium is
something of a throw
back to earlier designs
such as the Shedd
and, say, Boston's
Aquarium, in that it
essentially ignores lo
cal systems in favor
of the exotic and the
spectacular. This ap
proach is in contrast
with recent region
ally-focused designs, such as the approach taken
by the facilities in Tennessee and Monterey.
However, though the Shedd is one of the oldest
public display aquaria in the country, as far as
I know, more than half of it is a Monterey Bay-
style integrated ecosystem on the critters and
habitats of of the Pacific Northwest that opened
in the 1990s. At least the folks in Chicago make
the attempt to present their exhibits as natural
systems as opposed to a collection of curiosities.
My first visit to the Georgia Aquarium was as
part of Prof. Gene Helfman's ichthyology class
and we were struck, as Ms. Shields was, by the
almost total lack of identifying signage, to say
nothing of the dearth of interpretive materials.
To that end, I put together a site (http://del-
kins.myweb.uga.edu/ich06/ichpix.htm) where I
could post the pictures taken by the class, along
with identifications, as best I could manage,
and appropriate links to FishBase, the de facto
web standard for fish taxonomy. (Unfortunately,
the descriptions lack the ecological information
that really ought to be included for a general
audience.) I know Gene sent the link to the folks
at the Georgia Aquarium. They did not, to my
knowledge, respond, which isn't really much of a
surprise....
Thanks for the critical and entertaining re
view.
Duncan Elkins
Athens
A McEXPERIENCE
I take my kids to McDonald's. What can I
say, the air-conditioned playground and happy
meals outweigh my terror of conditioning them
to the McDonald's universe. This fear is justi
fied. The toys right now in the happy meal are
little Hummers for boys and a booby-woman and
pink wardrobe for girls: apparently, boys should
grow up and destroy the environment whereas
girls should obsess over clothes, have boob jobs,
and like pink. Got it No problem. What was
disturbing, however, was the quantity of Bush
bumperstickers on the cars in the parking lot.
How can it be that Georgians still support this
president? How is it possible that Georgians still
favor Republicans? Are people in the South all
just a bunch of dum-
basses? As Rumsfeld
would say, definitely.
Can such a large group
of people be simple
idiots? Probably. Is
there any hope these
people could actually
learn and not destroy
the planet Earth?
Doubtful. Yet I find
these answers dissatis
fying. Red states cannot be simply dumber than
blue states. So what is it? Religion? Religion
definitely makes even intelligent people idiots.
I think more than that, however, it is still fear.
Republicans, oddly, are still perceived as strong
on security. As Rove would put it, they go into
action (which means they just bomb everyone
and sort 'em out later) while Democrats offer
therapy. What is odd is that this is as far from
the truth as truth can be. Most of the measures
that we could take to keep us safe from terrorism
we are not implementing. NSA spying, financial
tracking, no fly lists, etc. have not foiled ter
rorists. Real measures would include computer
fingerprinting at airports, anti-missile technol
ogy on airplanes and sensitive buildings, port se
curity, guarding sensitive sites like nuclear plants
and chemical factories, etc. All those things
we cannot do because they are too expensive.
Imagine how safe we would be if we took that
300 billion dollars we have spent to embroil our
selves in a civil war in Iraq and spent it on real
security for America. Instead, we started a war
that has proved to be the greatest recruitment
tool for terrorists imaginable. In the process,
we have alienated the whole rest of the world
who now see us as a threat equal to Iran. As the
Middle East goes up in flames, our president goes
on vacation. A recent analysis has shown that
since the beginning of his presidency, Bush has
spent almost a full year on vacation. Even Tony
Blair, the other leader chosen by God, curtailed
his vacation to deal with the crisis between
Lebanon and Israel. So, please, all of you Bush-
bumpersticker people, I beg you to get a clue.
It is not patriotism to follow an insane king,
it is simply loyalism. We are not Democrats, or
Republicans, or liberals or conservatives, or reds
or blues, we are Americans. Let's save our coun
try from the politicians who would destroy it
Randy Rodgers
Email
TOFU BABY
In re: "Inherently Good" (Letters, Aug. 9].
Protein jet infusion, not ethical suspension, is at
issue here. As Mr. Erchick so helpfully clarifies.
Tofu Baby is a girt, or not a girt. In either case,
the truth is that as processed biomatter she, or
not she, would only have limited appeal to some
one on a wheat-free diet; or to someone who is a
girl, or not not a girl, or not.
With her newly acquired cult status—re
sulting from her HOT cartoon and her sexually
charged performance as Kudzu Biscuit Baby in
Sushi Bikers From Hell 3000— Miss Baby is the
obvious choice as the next international sexually
ambivalent nutritional icon and DIVA, except
for the fact that she is by her ver} nature mor
ally in the RED. Why? BECAUSE she doesn't have
shoes—SHOES—shoes for my BABY—red shoes if
possible, or not, but definitely for my baby. Baby
needs new shoes. And she does like red, actually
a LOT, but it's not like it has to be red, or any
thing, or not.
It hurts me to say this y'alU but Tofu Baby
is a spy. In reality Miss Baby is an Amino Acid
agent for S.O.Y. She works covertly as a Deus-Ex-
Machina-lacking shill for the Corn Syrup Mafia
and as a dietary Bounty Hunter for the Stomp-
Out-Rice religious Right. Sure, she may not have
started out that way in the beginning, or the
end of the beginning of the end, but when the
beginning eventually became the end, or the be
ginning of the end, she had become that way, or
not, oh dang, I forgot.
As is said in the end of the beginning, in suet
to it.
G.D. Davidson
Athens
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4 FLAGPOLE.COM-AUGUST 23,2006
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