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MacGregor - 2009-06-03 10:20:46
The Che tee-shirt phenomenon has fascinated me for a long time. That single image is as ubiquitous as the Coca-cola logo, and Che seems to be as much a Jack Kerouac symbol in most places as anything else. It's like a vague symbol of simple non-conformity. What does it mean on the 12 year old son of a brownstone owning family in Park Slope, or a Princeton undergrad? My favorite take on it, by the way (I just saw this last week) is Cher's bereted image on a bright red tee-shirt. Prior to that I liked the one with a chimp's face in place of Che's. (I have a Che fridge magnet, by the way, which seemed like the height of irony when I laid down the money for it, but that idea sort of fizzled in my head.) The image has come to symbolize, at least for me because of it's everpresence, the death of leftism. I gave up on romantic notions of "Che the Liberator" at about 25. There are many sides to every story and despite any noble ideals he may have started with, I think the Maoist tactics he got into were seriously misguided and heartless.
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Paula - 2009-06-03 10:36:36
Yeah, the author, Michael Casey, is pretty clear-eyed about his subject, and about the people surrounding him.
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MacGregor - 2009-06-03 12:34:05
I'm going to have to pick this book up. The media marketing of politics is one of my favorite subjects. I know it sounds cynical--it was a very long time ago that I first heard the phrase "politics is show-business for ugly people" but it has only become more true.
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Paula - 2009-06-03 13:03:52
Ha. I own the book, you may borry.
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chris - 2009-06-03 14:19:34
New yorker cartoon: Che wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt. Classic
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sfeli - 2009-06-04 00:32:03
there is a drag queen here named Juanita More and she puts a t-shirt out every year. my favorite is the red che juanita. Crimson t-shirt, classic che silhouette, but something is not quite right...the fabulous hair, the plucked eyebrows. It always gets a double take. Plus I look good in crimson.
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MacGregor - 2009-06-04 12:47:53
From Stew's Naked Dutch Painter: Doncha wish there was more than one picture of Che? Like maybe one shooting milk through his nose at a children's party?
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Paula - 2009-06-04 12:53:59
Funny. The second most famous photo of him (second by a country mile, of course) is of his laid-out corpse.
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MacGregor - 2009-06-05 23:03:45
I absolutely love the term "country mile." Second by only a New York minute to New York minute.
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Bina Shah - 2009-06-20 16:18:06
One of my favorite songs, Poets of the Fall's "Late Goodbye" is on the Max Payne soundtrack! Some of these games have really good music.
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