rue des mauvais garçons

male models backstage, outside, and portraits

[damplaundry]

Serge Rigvava at Ferragamo F/W 2015 by Alfredo Piola

[climatecalling]

Yes, Actually, Individual Responsibility Is Essential to Solving the Climate Crisis

Personal sacrifices are necessary, and greens should be honest about that

"By waving off the potency of individual action, the climate movement will simply substitute one blind spot for another. A fixation on system change alone opens the door to a kind of cynical self-absolution that divorces personal commitment from political belief. This is its own kind of false consciousness, one that threatens to create a cheapened climate politics incommensurate with this urgent moment."

[perrydoane]

yui yaegashi

[climatecalling]

Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%, report says

‘Polluter elite’ are plundering the planet to point of destruction, says Oxfam after comprehensive study of climate inequality

The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%, with dire consequences for vulnerable communities and global efforts to tackle the climate emergency, a report says. The most comprehensive study of global climate inequality ever undertaken shows that this elite group, made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those paid more than US$140,000 (£112,500) a year, accounted for 16% of all CO2 emissions in 2019 – enough to cause more than a million excess deaths due to heat, according to the report.

[vinylsleeves]

[lawrenceleemagnuson]

Adrienne Stein (USA) Golden Hour oil on linen 152.4 x 152.4 cm https://www.adriennestein.com

[climatecalling]

Revealed: the huge climate impact of the middle classes

Carbon emissions of richest 10% are up to 40 times bigger than poorest, and ignoring divide may make ending climate crisis impossible, exper

The world’s richest 10% encompasses most of the middle classes in developed countries – anyone paid more than about $40,000 (£32,000) a year. The lavish lifestyles of the very rich – the 1% – attract attention. But the 10% are responsible for half of all global emissions, making them key to ending the climate crisis. ... Transport, especially car use, is a major factor in the sky-high emissions of the richest 10%, with these emissions 20-40 times higher than the transport emissions of the poorest 10% in the countries analysed. ... Another major factor is the emissions embodied in the goods that people buy, such as furniture and electronics. These are 20-50 times higher for the richest 10%, and make up about a third of emissions in most countries. ... Globally, the top 10% by income totals 770 million people, with almost two-thirds in high-income countries. ... A blanket approach by governments to shift to green lifestyles unfairly disadvantaged the poorest in society and undermined trust. “Policy sticks, such as taxation, should only be used to target those who have capacity to make cuts, ie those who are better off, whereas policy carrots, such as subsidies and support for lifestyle change, are needed for those who are unfairly burdened at the moment by rising fuel and food prices.” ... An international taxation taskforce is due to launch at Cop28 to push for new climate levies and will consider taxes on wealth, fossil fuels, shipping, aviation and financial transactions. Townend said: “Rich lifestyles can change to reduce emissions without damaging wellbeing. What matters most to people is our relationships with others and our ability to be social, and those things aren’t carbon intensive to enjoy or maintain.”

[mentaltimetraveller]

Gelitin Hase, 2006
Hand-knit stuffed animal

[climatecalling]

Too much stuff: can we solve our addiction to consumerism?

The long read: Alarmed by the rising tide of waste we are all creating, my family and I decided to try to make do with much less. But while

It is hard to stomach seeing what actually comes of our collective consumption – the waste that makes literal mountains, not to mention the waste of resources that are spent on dealing with it. ... The costs have been staggering. Economic inequality and wars over non-renewable resources have killed untold numbers. The steep increase in products in recent decades has accelerated pollutant emissions, deforestation and climate breakdown. It has depleted water supplies and contributed to the rapid extinction of animals. ... Even if we accept the positives of mass consumption to date, we must acknowledge that the situation is unsustainable. And yet, we can’t seem to stop ourselves. ... The primary responsibility for solving the environmental crisis belongs to businesses and governments. Those who produce materials, and those responsible for overseeing it, can act at the scale necessary for real change. “We’re fooling ourselves if we think that individual actions are going to move the meter. Every little bit helps, but public policy and corporations have to change.” ... I find it naive to imagine that the world can simply do away with capitalism and the global economy in time to save our planet. In practice, the circular economy is not one approach but many. ... Although this range of approaches in some measure fractures the movement into parts, it also means that we can look to these different experiments to see what works and what doesn’t. This moment of emergency requires immediate action, and for now that must mean collaborating with the companies that make our modern world. It does not mean acquiescence, however. All of us must do our part to push those in power to create real and meaningful change, even as we must seek to make real and meaningful change in our own lives.

[fujiwara57]

Yūzen  友禅

 Auparavant les kosode 小袖 (ancêtres du kimono 着物) étaient décorés de broderies, ou par teinture au fil noué, voire décorés de motifs au pochoir (katakanoko). Miyazaki Yûzensai 宮崎友禅斎 (1654-1736), moine peintre de Kyōto 京都, a amélioré la technique de la teinture en employant une technique de peinture par mise en réserve à la colle.  Cette technique s'appelle le “yūzen”, en hommage à son inventeur. 

[thekimonogallery]

Yuzen-dyed fabrics.  Kimonos traditionally were decorated with embroidery, or dyeing with knotted thread, even decorated with stencilled motifs (katakanoko).   Miyazaki Yuzensai 斎 崎 友 禅 斎 (1654-1736), a monk painter from Kyōto a, improved the technique of dyeing by using a technique of painting by setting aside the glue. This technique is called “yuzen”, in tribute to its inventor.

[climatecalling]

Consumerism is the path to planetary ruin, but there are other ways to live

Faced with the now undeniable impacts of climate crisis created by humans, political leaders in wealthier countries incline towards one of two competing responses. They either question the urgency and feasibility of meeting net zero targets and generally procrastinate (the rightwing tendency); or they proclaim their faith in the powers of magical green technologies to protect the planet while prolonging and extending our present affluent ways of living (a position more favoured on the left and centre). Common to both approaches is a wrongheaded presumption that we can carry on growing while managing to hold off the floods and fires of growth-driven capitalism. ... Sustainable production and consumption must therefore replace undifferentiated economic growth as the goal of 21st-century political economy. And making the case for this means challenging the belief that sustainable consumption will always involve sacrifice, rather than improve wellbeing. Our so-called “good life” is, after all, a major cause of stress and ill health. It is noisy, polluting and wasteful. Its commercial priorities have forced people to gear everything to jobseeking and career development, but still leave many people facing chronically unfulfilling and precarious jobs and lives. ... By offering a broader cultural dimension to the existing arguments of those who dissent from today’s economic orthodoxy and want to promote a less unequal world, a compelling vision of alternative ways of living can help to inspire a more diverse, confident and substantial opposition. And in expanding on that vision we now need to look beyond western ideas of progress to include other influences and sources of inspiration.

[kafkasapartment]

California Poppies, 1981. Mark Adams

Etching and aquatint on B.F.K. paper.

[climatecalling]

The gas industry is paying Instagram influencers to gush over gas stoves.

Not pictured: toxic fumes.

The gas cooking Insta–trend is no accident. It’s the result of a carefully orchestrated campaign dreamed up by marketers for representatives with the American Gas Association and American Public Gas Association, two trade groups that draw their funding from a mix of investor- and publicly owned utilities.

Since at least 2018, social media and wellness personalities have been hired to post more than 100 posts extolling the virtues of their stoves in sponsored posts. Documents from the fossil fuel watchdog Climate Investigations Center show that another trade group, the American Public Gas Association, intends to spend another $300,000 on its millennial-centric “Natural Gas Genius” campaign in 2020. …

The industry has been working on convincing us of these supposed benefits of gas stoves for a long time—Instagram campaigns are just the latest twist in a 90-year-old advertising campaign. …

Gas stoves are still the norm in American households, while just 1 percent have adopted induction—far below what Asian and European countries have adopted. Like the tobacco industry’s misleading marketing campaigns, the gas companies have given the public false faith in these stovetops’ safety.

[thunderstruck9]

Hernan Bas (American, 1978), Conceptual artist #19 (A child of the 80’s, he places his Polaroid self portraits in a familiar spot whenever he’s feeling lost), 2023. Acrylic on linen, 72 x 60 in.

[koloocheh]

usamericans have to make sure biden doesn't get to live as long and powerful as kissenger did. these war criminal headlines from normie publications mean nothing if they've also been repeating propaganda justifying bombing palestine and other middle eastern countries. i hope the same liberals cheering on his death see the hypocrisy of encouraging people to vote blue, but i doubt it.

[climatecalling]

WTF? Look, it doesn't matter how much of an asshole and murderer Biden is when it comes to voting, because the only other option is a worse murderer and asshole who will destroy even more lives. Sticking it to Biden is biting off your nose to spite your face.

Not voting Biden and not voting blue is exactly the same as voting Trump. Who's that going to be sticking it to? All of humanity, and especially the most oppressed and marginalized.

There are lots of ways of fighting for real justice and opposing the wrongs of Democrats. Electing Trump is not one of them.

[climatecalling]

As a political strategy, refusing to vote for a terrible and in this case genocidal Democratic candidate when the only other option on the ballot is an even worse Republican candidate, on the theory that this will show the Democrats that they have to do better and will cause them to suddenly change and do the right thing, has never worked.

Voting for the least worst candidate is the absolute minimum political action but it's still essential. What's much more important and much harder is doing the real work of grassroots organizing so that we end up with better candidates, with engaged communities, with mass political involvement that pushes for real change, with genuine representation, and on and on. If you're not organizing and are not involved in your community and are not in the streets protesting, then don't you dare sabotage the outcome of a real election that will affect real people in profound ways by effectively voting in Republicans and especially Trump and his cronies with this we're-going-to-show-Biden bullshit.

[mentaltimetraveller]

David Shrigley Proposals for Record Covers Galerie Francesca Pia, Zürich December 3, 2022 – January 28, 2023

[mentaltimetraveller]

Bertrand Fournier MIMOSA 1, 2021 Oil stick and oil painting on canvas