Paris Hilton, that is. Reportedly, Mrs. Hilton was not too pleased that John McCain used pictures of herself and Britney Spears in a political advertisement to bash Barack Obama. The campaign commercial attempted to compare Obama’s popularity to that of perceived dim-wits such as the two, with a voiceover weighing in that “he’s the biggest celebrity of the world – but is he ready to lead?”.
McCain’s use of Paris Hilton as an example of someone famous for, well, being famous, is especially slippy as her parents, Kathy and Rick Hilton, have donated $ 4,600 to McCain’s campaign. Talk about a bad choice of image.
Now, Paris Hilton herself has responded to the events, in a rather surprising way.
I know… it sounds like a relic from the 70s or something, which it actually is. But obviously it’s one of those ideas that even gain relevance over time.
That said, I have to add that I really feel for the 1000 people losing their already underpaid jobs. But it also shows that there is not unlimited demand for ever the same products. I admit that it gereally makes sense to have chain stores in some respect. But it also makes traveling (and living) so not exciting at times, because it kills cultural particularities.
Her comes a sermon by Reverend Billy, founder of the Church of Stop Shopping, getting the word out to the masses on Fox Biz News:
Exactly one year ago, at 9:01 am, Cho Seung-Hui paid $14.40 for a U.S. Postal Service express parcel, two hours after he had killed two students at a dormitory of the Virginia Tech University.
The package was bound to go to NBC’s headquarters; the Zip code and street address were incorrect, so it reached the network with a little delay. The parcel contained 27 quicktime-files with videos of Cho, several pictures and a collection of his writings. Cho signed with „A Ishmael“ and returned to the Blacksburg campus to murder another 30 people before shooting himself.
NBC went on to air parts of Cho Seung-Hui’s “Multimedia Manifesto” – a decision which has been widely attacked, as well as it has been defended. What guided the editors at the Rockefeller Center to impart those disturbing communications of a multiple murderer? Why are the decisions of TV producers still relevant in the age of the Internet video? And when does Cho become too much Cho? [Read more]
Call him the Black Kennedy, the Tiger Woods of politics, or the Second Coming. The epithets used to describe presidential hopeful Barack Obama (D-Ill) are a testimony to an election that is so much more than politics.
There is something close to biblical about rain, when the skies give way to an almost cathartic downpour, draining off the drudge, sins and conversation-residuals clogging the streets. In any Hollywood movie (especially considering the writers’ strike) it could have been a Second Coming scenario, yet it was an unassuming Monday with weather more befitting of an unassuming British city pronounced Gloomster (but probably spelled Gleucmcester) in the midst of Berlin. The prophesized savior of American politics, Barack Obama, drew close to a 100 people, who sought shelter in the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung on this rainy, borderline-suicidal Monday evening, to learn about the self-professed harbinger of a new era – in a country so far from theirs.
Two and a half months into the writer’s strike and the first late night shows are back on the screen. In the first week of January, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien all returned to restore nightly TV routine. A week later, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show followed suit. How did Jon Stewart do? Did he survive out there without the scripted gags of his humoristic elves and their mighty pens?
To find out, we tried to get into the studio and watch the taping of his first show back on air. Unfortunately, about 500 other people had the same idea. Instead of lining up at the end of the queue around the block, we talked to one of the protesting writers in front of the studio. [Read more]
This is a liveblog from the grand opening of the Graduate School of North American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Since all the speakers hold their speeches in German, this post will now switch its language:
2006 for Germans was not only the year of the World Championship. On the sociopolitical level there was also a broad discussion about nationality. Photographer Lars Borges found himself in the middle of this discussion or as he puts it “in an ocean of black, red and golden flags”. Is young Germany ready for a new national conscience? Or is it the first signs of the old demons returning? [Read more]
Taryn Simon documents the hidden; her photos shed light on the secrets of society. Her “American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar” collects and lists places which fascinate because we either were not aware of their existence, or we did not dare to imagine them. This weekend, her exhibiton in Frankfurt opened its doors. [Read more]
I’m just home from Berlin Alexanderplatz and I must say that I have probably seen the most crazy thing in my life.
Namely: several thousand people trying to get into a new store at midnight. There was police and ambulances and dozens of security people who where beginning to get quite aggressive and also lots of people that got frustrated because they wanted to buy cheap stuff.
Some students made fun of the whole situation by chanting “Buying, buying!” and tasteless stuff like “We are the people!”. All in all it was a really uncomfortable situation out there.
I perfectly understand that people don’t have much money these days and that they wanna take advantage of this situation but what I just experienced made me think about the state of humanity really. This was seriously a disturbing experience. People were out there in the middle of the night getting aggressive because they wanted to buy cheap. It wasn’t like anybody’s life would have depended on this.
I uploaded a short video of the incident. Just see for yourself…
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