Respect Authority

Time’s cover story this week is about Obama and his magical hundred days, and the story’s already online. The short end of it? He really hasn’t done anything yet, and even if he did it’s really Jim Jones’ fault for being too weak; besides, he shot the pirates. What’s more interesting is this picture of his private residence! Looks like his Mac’s hooked up to a brand new Apple Cinema Display with a custom high-resolution White House wallpaper.

And he might be using his Blackberry while reading four books at the same time. Also, his lamp’s a little fey.

This isn’t supposed to be a column about photography of urban decay; it just so happens that images of decomposing modern ruins compliment dark visions of the future particularly well. Still trying to figure that one out.

Late last week, TIME ran a photo essay by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre about Detroit’s golden oldies. This is the same glistening point on the map where earlier this winter a dead body was found encased in a block of ice inside an elevator shaft, where he had been for months. So yeah, Detroit… nice place to visit and all… only, um, not.

This was once Detroit’s main train station; today it has been converted into Detroit’s main source of tetanus. Seriously, no wonder Eminem is so pissed off coming from this place. Not only do you probably have cancer from the city’s proud collection of asbestos, but worse yet, there’s not even anything to do on the weekend.

In a way, Detroit functions as a sneak preview for any city in its decline. In a time when old industries and business models are showing their age and failing to keep up with technology’s exponential progression, any city that can not adapt to the demands of the present will inevitably regress exponentially.

And in a city that is increasingly resembling a ghost town, it’s hard not to believe in hauntings. Nonetheless, watching America’s ruins form before your very eyes is quite frightening all on its own.

As 2008 draws to a close, more and more attention seems to be getting paid to Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” award. Oh who ever will it be? Will be be a) Obama, or b) someone other than Obama? As we wait with baited breath, let’s step back for a minute and ask ourselves why on earth we give a damn about this arbitrary title from one of print journalism’s most rapidly declining publications.

Remember now, Time used to be a well respected news magazine. They didn’t always pick the fan favorites, giving the now coveted title to Adolf Hitler in 1938, and twice to Joseph Stalin (1939 & 1942). Even as recently as 1996, the prize was awarded to people outside of the public realm such as Dr. David Ho, a pioneer in AIDS research, even acknowledging that “Ho is not, to be sure, a household name. But some people make headlines while others make history” (Ho is not a household name, LOLZ… but I digress). Then… they kind of gave up. “The Whistleblowers,” “The American Solider,” “Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono”? Time, that is not only grammatically incorrect, it is more than one singular person. Stop rewriting the rules to your own goddamned contest. And then who can forget the epic blunder of 2006. “You,” where they put a computer with a reflective panel on the cover, for people to look at on magazine racks and shout “OH MY GOD, IT’S ME!” That’s about when I stopped reading Time for good.

But there’s something interesting about the race this year. Sure, all signs point to Barack Obama (on Time’s website under “Cons” they include “Hasn’t cured cancer, nor won the world series.” They don’t bring the news anymore, but they sure can still bring the funny! Am I right or am I right?), but maybe that’s just too obvious. And wasn’t the real thrill of the 2008 election that we did it, that it was our hope that brought the Obamas to the White House? And we’ve already been the Man of the Year, so that’s out. Read More ›