[ pulling up the vegetables ]

On the taxi ride from Malpensa this morning I learned a little history of our neighborhood in Milan.  I asked the driver to take me to Piazza Loreto. About 20 minutes into the ride, the driver filled me in on Loreto’s history, specifically regarding Mussolini’s execution.

According to Wikipedia, Mussolini was executed, firing squad style, up in Lake Como.  Following his death, Mussolini’s body was brought to Milan, hung on meat hooks at Piazzale Loreto and stoned by the public.  Alongside, and also hanging, were his mistress and some peers.

As the taxi cruised into the roundabout, the driver pointed out the exact spot, the scene took place.  About 10 steps away from our building’s entrance.

In my jet-lagged haze, I vaguely recalled seniors in their military bests at this location on Italy’s Liberation day this past April.  It was here that they placed wreaths at the foot of a seemingly inconsequential sculpture.

The wreaths laid there for weeks after Liberation day, increasingly cracked and broken by the sun.  All dried up, save for the piss of dogs walking by, ours included.

The above photo displays Mussolini, 2nd from the left and is from the Italian Wikipedia page on the Death of Benito Mussolini

This image appears on developer.apple.com for Apple’s upcoming Worldwide Developer Conference.

I couldn’t help but notice that it’s multi-ethnic (yay), but appears to reflect only men. Where are the grrlz? You can’t tell me that there are no women developers for the Mac or iPhone which, coincidentally, have enjoyed explosive growth in the past couple years.

I’m fairly certain this was a huge oversight from a company obsessed with design as much as Apple is. Though, scroll down the page, check out the other images. Still no chicks.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been an Apple fan, loyalist, etc. for 20 years now and love the products and at most times, the culture Apple projects.  But this imagery is just perpetuating the stereotype when clearly, if anyone, Apple should be condemning such idiocy and paving the way for change.

Ironically, the advocacy for this kind of gender-based change is happening elsewhere.

a couple posters, one from the god squad, the other for the upcoming EU Parliamentary elections, both seeking believers and new converts.

Stopped at our local Sainsbury next to the tube this morning. On the way out, this bundle of plastic caught my eye as I passed by the newspaper stand.  Very often the Guardian or The Times (or any other local publication) will bundle media with the paper. Kind of like offerring not one but TWO types of dying media, for the price of a newspaper!

Low and behold, today’s Times, has gone the distance and bundled a copy of George Orwell’s classic, 1984, with every paper.  This has to be somebodys brilliant joke. (Nice going, I’d like to buy you tea or a pint sometime)

Now I’m just waiting for a BBC headline “Man caught on CCTV stealing The Times with 1984″.

In an inexplicably strange concept, German media outlet, Welt Kompakt, right-sizes leaders of the world if only for a quick double-take, followed by a nice laugh.

This whole series is from a full corridor-length wall display at Berlin’s Schonefeld Airport. Joel and I had fun naming the more obscure leaders while wondering how and why these were chosen over others. For instance, where is Sarkozy, Putin, Chavez, etc?

Apart from all the fun were having with these, I was left with the lingering thoughts of how babies and children are depicted throughout art history. More specifically, the Christ baby in all the Madonna and Child portraits in early Christian art / the Byzantine period. I believe this is when the depicitons of children began where they are infant or child size, but with adult faces.  If remember correctly, there are still traces of this found in Renaissance and Mannerist works as well.

Then again, after these images kept nagging at me, I looked at them again. These aren’t adult faces on these kids at all. The only adult traces are from my memory, otherwise they’re just toddlers with distorted expressions emphasizing the absurdity of the situation.

This ad, “oohgle” is posted all over the tube and on sides of buses. It seemed too much of an obvious Google marketing hack of some sort. Like the mathematical problems Google’s posts on billboards for potential job candidates and aspiring geeks.

So, I go to check out “oohgle“. Low and behold Google (and Yahoo!), it’s a UK marketing company, Postercope, riffing ripping of your brand(s)!  First with the obvious Google associations, then on the landing page itself (at least one of two or three), the text  and page title are “Do you ooghle?”.

Clever? Hmm… maybe slightly with the “Out of home” of the “OOH”.  Stupid? Yes, most definitely.

Brixtonites are selling gallons and gallons of Obama Punch!  That’s right the tagline for this super sweet and fruity nectar is “a little taste of paradise”.  Respect.