The dada art movement was aflame when I moved to San Francisco as a troubled Norwegian youth from Stange. Pseudonyms were common though I was too pusillanimous to invent one. Anna Banana marched in front of city hall dressed as a banana. Someone else was dressed as Mr. Peanut. A peanut with a top hat, spats, gloves and a monocle certainly is dada. This posse also produced a magazine called Vile. Little did I realize it at the time but that itself was a satire on the magazine File produced by a collective of 3 gay men from Toronto who called themselves General Idea.
Sunday I saw a documentary on General Idea at Frameline – San Francisco’s LGBT film festival. AA Bronson, the surviving member of Idea narrated much of the film. Before seeing the film I had not forgiven GI for a work which consisted of taking Robert Indiana’s piled letters spelling LOVE and changing it to AIDS. Bronson explained that Americans interpreted Indiana’s LOVE as free love thereby equated free love with AIDS. He said Europeans interpreted the LOVE sculpture as universal love. So universal love should be applied to AIDS. He also explained that they were “selling” AIDS as a product. I still don't necessarily agree with the work, but I get the general idea.
Bronson pointed out that American President at the time would not say the word AIDS. I remember at the time were mumblings among Republicans about people with AIDS that “it’s their fault” etc. Reagan recently replaced the heroic Thomas Starr King in the National Statuary Hall Collection representing California. Reagan was never anything but a hollow bronze statue as was our recent cowboy prez. Thomas Starr King’s oratory in the California legislature helped blocked the state from joining the Confederacy or remaining neutral during the Civil War. Reagan wiped out the tax base for schools with his “Prop 13”. Considering how he stood for “states rights” that hidden agenda, if he were alive in Starr King’s time I’m sure he would have sided with the Confederacy. This "star" of General Electric's Death Valley Days lived in exclusive Santa Barbara and was given a funeral worthy of JFK.
6 comments:
I've seen three films during the festival, and Ronald Reagan appeared in all of them. Does Nancy get residuals even when it's a news clip and he's the demon?
P.S. Even if he lost his statue in DC, Starr King has a street named after him in San Francisco and Reagan does not. It always seemed fitting to me that Linda Blair's character in "The Exorcist" was named Reagan.
Ladron: Yes, Linda Blair. I met her once at the Women's Building during a screening of Roller Boogie hosted by the Sick and Twisted Players. The incredible poet Tony Vaguely was in the S&TP. Tony out ennui's everybody! Loved your clydesdale story BTW.
I've always wondered what exactly became of the chocolate chewable product called The Ayds Diet Plan. I mean, did they just change names or just slink away quietly, never to be seen again?
Oh, and Howard Jarvis is generally credited with the wonderful idea of Prop 13.
I think I remember reading about this in REsearch, back in the day...
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