Blocking all lanes

I've been part of a reading group for a few weeks. Its not a physical group, but rather one from the internet over at mammoth blog (here). The book, The Infrastructural City, contains a series of short, and pictorial essays about L.A. The latest chapter is about traffic. The author makes an interesting point about the history of traffic.

"Tracing the history of the word, traffic originally referred to the movement of commodities. Only in the last two centuries did it explicititly take on vehicles and people. In terms of the modern defnition, we are traffic (which reminds us that it was once quite acceptable for one to be a "computer" or a "typewriter.") If course we don't talk that way: we say that we are "in traffic," but we never admit to being traffic.

...The automobile, the capitalist vehicle par excellence, promises freedom while the often-fustrating experience of driving leaves us feeling quite out of control. We hold on to the idea that although we might be stuck now, there is a way out. But what if our agency were underpinned by an organizing, computational mechnanism? We stop. We go. WE turn. We yield. What if these were not simply rules to follow (code as law), but instructions to follow (code as program), an instruction that gives a green light."

The first paragraph points to the commodity aspect of travel. The car is "the capitalist vehicle par excellence" not only for its high price in gas, maintenance, highway cost, initial sale, but also in that it is a moving commodity from one point to another. Driving is movement from and to different points of consumption. This fact is schellacked over not only by the idea of freedom, pointed out by the second paragraph, but by people's lack of desire to be reified. This latter point is seen in the idea that we are stuck in traffic and never we are traffic. Reification is the process by which human relations are turned into things. The traffic jam is a thing, a social process, that happense to others that we are not a part of. By keeping ourselves separate we alleviate the burden of culpability yet the world works according to the laws of constant reproduction. Here I'm reminded of Fredy Perlman's "The Reproduction of Everyday Life (here)."

Are we responsible for traffic jams or is it a process of the machine? Tools are not neutral and carry with them their own way of interacting with the world...

All that was once directly lived now moves into representation

This evening was eventful. I met up with my friend on the train and we went to MOMA, then we went to White Walls, a gallery on Larkin between O'Farrell and Geary, a stones throw from the home bums and massage parlours of the tenderloin. The urban gallery was showing a collection of art by Blek Le Rat and Above, both street artists. Blek Le Rat is a predeccessor to Banksy and uses stencil graffitti to promote his message, which has a situationist slant.

"The spectacle says nothing more than 'what is good appears and what appears is good.'"

With price tags at a rock bottom price of $600, and ranging up to $45,000 (with the average costing $15,000) the once subversive movement of street art, stencils, and the social commentary that they implicitly carried has been caught back up in the order of things. This has been pointed out before by the "splasher," a new york city vandal who caused a ruckus by defacing the street art of Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Swoon and others, validly. [More on the splasher here.]

Blek La Rat posted one of his infamous stencils of a homeless man lying on the street on the outside of the building, inside on a piece of canvas the piece cost $39,000, his advertising of homelessness as an aesthetic makes it acceptable, and quite expensive! I could pay for my college loans with that profit margin, or 8 years of my current rent. I wonder if his model got a stipend!?

He should certainly be praised for having turned abject poverty into a gratuitous money making enterprise, a spectacular feat! The image on the outside of the gallery doesn't speak of irony- that the homeless could be sleeping across the street, or in front of the building, but rather is a marker of safety. This style of street graffiti, while originally being a detournment of public space, has now been recuperated and serves as a marker of gentrification - the dislocation of people in the interests of capital. It tells the population that the area is now aesthetic with the beauty of refined low brow art. The kids in tight pants can feel okay walking around late at night! Finally!

First came the street artists with their stencils, but I wasn't a street artist. Then came the galleries, but I wasn't a hipster. Then came the bourgeoisie but I wasn't bourgeoisie. Then came the increase in rent that I couldn't afford anymore!

Gated Community

When I moved to the barrio from my former garden city of Berkeley I noticed how many fences there were. Every house it seemed like had some sort of demarcation of perimeter. These fences reflect the social landscape with their lack of elegance. You know no rich people live on this street with their fucking fancy fences. The gates also speak of the separation between people. There is a desire to protect one's own assets, an understandable one and putting up a fence, while useless for the most part, is a psychological defense. The fact that most crime and abuse happens between people that know each other seems like an important thing to recognize. You're more likely to have your shit stolen from friends, and acquaintances than some random thug roaming down the street. Its your neighbors who are going to grift from you. So why put up a fence?

Pretty Basic Bastille. Lots of wire. Some rods. Probably better than a solely wire fence. It was also pretty tall. Which makes me a little less likely to climb over it... unless I got a ladder with my bugarly tools.
This is rad. The fence is spikey, which means dangerous, and they've locked in their front porch. Double security.
Set behind the picture below is this row of houses. Reminds me of a minuature version of the big gated communities in las vegas. I'm glad there's no fucking neighborhood association on this block screaming at me about my substandard fence.
A big ass gate. Fancy.

The spikey fence pointing at different angles gives the climber of the fence a little more to worry about. Especially since my pants hang between my legs unevenly! Ouch!
The arched fence between brick blocks. Wait a second! I could just climb on top of those small pillars and avoid the fence all together. Looks like I'm looting this house tonight!
The classic white picket fence. Dreams of middle class suburbia reside here in the barrio!

White, Spikey, and you can't park your get away car in front! Damn!

No hanging out after I've robbed them!? What the hell?

This place has the right idea, just board up everything. They've even protected their windows with steel bars. That means that no one can get in or out! A fortress of safety!

Boarded up in the barrio!


I thought these stairs were nice, although it does make stealing couches harder. Why can't they have ramps for cat burglars? Its also worth noting the gate/front door.



Double security here on a shit house, a fence and a bike lock! Formidable!

What no fence? No locked in porch!? wait what's that? Oh protected by a security group. Better steer clear of that sign.

None of the usual trappings, but the color of this house seems to say; "We have nothing of value, look at us, we don't even value good colors on our abode!"

Oh shit a dog? Wait is it a Chihuahua? I think I saw this guy's little pocket pup shitting on the lawn the other day. No big deal!

Locked in gate and a fence! Double your safety double your fun!
White and spikey. Fucking racist!
Black and spikey. Fucking racist!

Pointy tops! Wouldn't want to climb this and catch my balls on those spikes!



Classic wire fence. Meh no problem with my fence cutters!

Locked front door!

A fence on wheels!

Gate Guardians! Damn this one's seen some action! Missing a paw no doubt defending an intruder!
A spin on the classic white picket fence motif
Shitty house!
Look at that shitty fence! Burglars are going to hop over that for sure!

Tilikum gets a treat

The rays of our star never die out in the “Sunshine State” of Florida. The beams of light and heat were pouring forth in Orlando on Wednesday when 40 year old Dawn Brancheau was working the “Dining with Shamu” show. The event held daily at the theme park, owned by the same company as Budweiser beer, held a special visual morsel for onlookers. As tourists eating poolside chowed on their food, Tilikum, a captive killer whale at the park, dragged the veteran trainer under water, enclosing her in his jaws. The spectators in an underwater viewing area saw the whale swim by, flipping the bleeding trainer over and over in his mouth.

Witnesses described vastly different events: One said Brancheau was patting the whale when he grabbed her arm and dragged her into the water. Another said the big bull orca leaped up out of nowhere and began shaking her.

The whale "shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing [her] around," witness Victoria Biniak told Orlando's WKMG-TV. "It was violent."

Tilikum, whose name means "friend" in the Native American language Chinook, was only attempting to play according to the official line of Seaworld representative. A natural habit in a penitentiary of instincts where innate habits are trained for the enjoyment paying tourists.

Barbara Walters, infamous agent of the Spectacle, reinforced the line of the aquatic zoo in her proto-feminist show “The View.” “The whale was not trying to kill her. The whale thought that this was fun,” Walters said.

Our “Friend” the killer whale has been engaged in carnage in the past, twice causing the death of humans.

In 1991, a marine biology student and part-time trainer fell into his tank in Canada and was dragged under by Tilikum. The whale and two females blocked her from getting out of the pool and tossed her back and forth in the air between them like a toy.

In 1999, there was a case so bizarre it made headlines around the world: A man sneaked into Tilikum's pool at SeaWorld and his naked corpse was found the next day splayed on the whale's back.

The infamous question “What is to be Done,” has been looming over our orca. Animal rights activists say release him, while others implore him to be maintained at Seaworld. Jeff Ventre, a former trainer, perfectly explains the position, and interests of his former workplace when he states that its in Tilikum's best interest to stay in the “habitat” provided by Budweiser Lager.

"He's not releasable for a couple reasons. Number one, he spends as lot of time surface-resting - a wild orca swims pretty much its entire life.

"Number two, he doesn't have any viable teeth left. One of the (things you do when) putting orcas in a facility is that you have to separate them with gates, and what they tend to do is threat-displays at each other to establish dominance. It's a matriarchal society. Tilikum (a male) is a sub-dominant animal in that society. He has a little bit less room to maneuver because of his massive size. He might be the largest animal in captivity. ... So, consequently, his teeth have broken off. And that's why you'll see the trainers every morning and evening using a water pick to flush out the impacted fish that gathers in the remnants of the teeth ... so it doesn't lead to something like an infection."

SeaWorld is said to have Tilikum insured for as much as $5 million, and Ventre said, "He's worth millions, and he represents the future of the breeding program for SeaWorld. He has impregnated - he's produced 13 calves, I believe. I think ten are still alive. I haven't been in the game for a long time. That's a guess, but those are the numbers that I think are accurate."

While Seaworld temporarily suspended the orca show, their biggest draw seating more than 5,500, the head trainer explained that attendance within a certain demographic- teens and young adults, might actually increase because of the incident.

"It's not going to draw families necessarily or older people who would typically visit there, but there is an age group that gets excited about the risks and the potential for drama and it may attract some of those folks," he said.

It is in acquatic parks, and zoos, places of hypnotic fascination, that human beings come to see their own instincts caged and sterilized. Everything that is intrinsic to humankind, but smothered by capitalist society, reappears safely in the zoo. Aggression, sexuality, motion, desire, play, the very impulses to freedom are trapped and displayed for the alienated enjoyment and manipulation of men, women and children. Here is the harmless spectacle in which everything desired by human beings exists only to the degree that it is separated from the reality of human existence. The cages are merely the extensions of the cages that omnipresently infest the lives of all living beings. Here the animals are placed in the unnatural habitat of a society unnatural to itself.

All that has been natural and a source of pleasure, for animals, has been converted into a performative slavery of a zoological bastille.

Denise DeVore, 36, a photographer from Beacon, N.Y., visited the park with her 3-year-old daughter Wednesday and said she felt it was safe for the public. DeVore said she thinks SeaWorld plays an important role in educating people about marine life.

But will she return? She echoed several other parents who were torn, though not because of the attack.

"The question is should we have whales in captivity? These are wild animals," DeVore said, adding, "But my daughter loves those dolphins."