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from the Times of San Diego:

“Tom Metzger, one of the nation’s most notorious white supremacists and anti-Semites, has died, according to a post on his White Aryan Resistance website. He was 82. Support Times of San Diego's growth with a small monthly contribution Become a supporter The post said: “Thomas Linton Metzger, born April 9th, 1938 in Warsaw, Indiana, passed away in Hemet, California, on November 4th, 2020.”

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Proud Boys celebrating their validation by our current president by reappropriating the Fred Perry Laurel Wreath they love so much. Outline did a good article a while back on the brand’s unfortunate popularity with racists.

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“Trucks that Fuck”

Independent Trucks Redesign Concepts. Allan Khorsheed. Printed in Jenkem Magazine. July 2020.

love this total reimagining of the Independent Trucks brand identity for Jenkem Magazine. Independent’s logo might top the list of iconic visuals in skateboarding (or at least tie with Thrasher), and it absolutely tops the list for skate logos that also kinda sorta evoke white nationalism (as opposed to explicitly evoking white nationalism... a prize Jay Adams claimed a long time ago ) The folks at NHS have been pretty vocal in refuting the connection, but intention can only do so much heavy lifting when it comes to what your image represents to people... just ask the guy who just wanted to make a silly comic about a cartoon frog.

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The Genealogy of the Supermarket. Nina Katchadourian. Framed photographs and wood on wallpapered wall, 144 x 360 inches, 2005-ongoing

Back when I lived in Austin, the Blanton had a Nina Katchadourian retrospective, and I was just absolutely blown away by her work- it all had this great sense of playfulness, but also a real edge to it. The piece I admired most was this “family tree” of commercial food mascots. By extending this idea of Mascots to such an absurdist place, she also forces us to sit in the choices made when creating these characters, such as giving them specific ethnicities. Even now, as we have wrestled with this more publicly, we have rarely paused to ask the why here... and not why in the sense that there could be a good reason (cuz obviously nope), or even in the sense that intention should have any bearing on whether it’s offensive, but just interrogating what is actually being communicated.* 

* Worth also noting the excellent episode + followup by the Sporkful podcast about use of the term “plantation” in food marketing 

http://www.sporkful.com/when-white-people-say-plantation-pt-1/

http://www.sporkful.com/plantation-rum-is-changing-its-name-is-that-enough/

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement

The government’s response to known connections of law enforcement officers to violent racist and militant groups has been strikingly insufficient.

One affiliation cited in the research: Two police officers in Virginia tied to the Asatru Folk Assembly - a white nationalist neopagan religious group with a direct connection to the black metal and neo-folk scene via Michael Moynihan. A writer most known for Lords of Chaos, an oral history of black metal recently turned into a mainstream film, Moynihan has written and edited a significant amount of Asatru content, and plays neo-folk under the alias Blood Axis. Moynihan also published, and wrote an introduction to James Mason’s Siege, a collection of racialist newsletters wildly popular among far-right hate groups for its advocation of violent governmental overthrow and the incitement of a race war. 

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project concept exploration poster 003

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project concept exploration poster 002

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project concept exploration poster 001

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Russ & Daughters shipping box, personal collection, August 2020

My wonderful friends made a rough summer a little better recently by surprising me with some bagels, lox and babka from legendary NY deli Russ & Daughters. All this mazing food, and I couldn’t stop staring at the box it came in. On a bright white box the Russ & Daughters’ beautiful R/Fish mark stood out in bright blue ink, with the name letter press-set underneath in Arial Black. Simple and perfect design.

A few years back the brand refreshed their identity to commemorate the opening of their new Orchard Street location, the details of which are fascinatingly covered here by the designer brought on board. There’s a lot to like about the redesign, but I have to admit I’m pretty happy the boxes haven’t gotten the update yet. I can absolutely see why Kelli Anderson made the choices she did, but I’m partial to the awkward imperfections of the original mark. 

Logo Comparison. Kelli Anderson. Blog Entry, New York, NY, 2014.

Final Logo. Kelli Anderson. Blog Entry, New York, NY, 2014.

Similarly, I find myself really appreciating Arial Black in this context. Anderson’s hand lettering, inspired by the deco-inspired lettering of New York’s municipal signage, really is beautiful, but it also feels oddly contemporary to me almost because it’s so reverent to these vintage forms- while the Arial Black feels so effortless in its simplicity. I say all this not to knock Anderson’s work at all, more just to highlight my own interest in these little details that mark something of it’s time- and how often these details end up being imperfections or slight misfires that end up working in this really interesting way.

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Galvanized Stainless Steel Candelabra. Joe Grand. Steel Pipe Fittings. Courtesy of Grand Idea Studio, San Francisco. Photo from Reinventing Ritual: Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life. 

I love this simple yet powerful rendition of a Menorah, enough so that I think when we decide to add a new one to the collection this year, I might make my own little tribute. Like other examples, it just reframes how Judaism is presented, giving it this utilitarian, industrial feel that contrasts with the old-world European aesthetic we see so often. I love the quote included in Reinventing Ritual of the artist, Joe Grand:

“The design of the menorah was a spur of the moment decision. I was at Home Depot and wanted to build something fun using non-standard materials. I remember sitting in the aisle surrounded by all sorts of steel piping. An employee asked what I was building and if I needed help. I told him “A menorah for Hanukkah,” and he walked away. Oh well, I figured it out on my own anyway!”

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Collected Work from the exhibit Lew the Jew and His Circle: Origins of American Tattoo, Albert "Lew The Jew” Kurzman, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Jul 26, 2018–Jun 9, 2019. San Francisco, CA. Mock-up from Tablet Magazine

Maybe you’ve heard about a rule regarding Jewish cemeteries and tattoos? It’s a myth, one that’s persistence (seriously, this thing comes up all the time) is a real indication that the most hardline version of something can easily become representative of a whole. The myth likely stems from some Jewish cemeteries who may have restrictions on tattoos– based on your level of observance, and your reading of the Torah, tattoos can be a contentious issue– but to block someone from proper burial, especially another Jew would be a pretty problematic act in it’s own right. As far as myths about Jews go, this one seems comparatively harmless, yet when you consider that a big swath of the population unfamiliar with Judaism thinks we would banish someone after their death over something like a tattoo, it hits home how these sort of myths can sour quickly.

Myth aside, this guy is a badass. I know, not the most academic appraisal, but this matters to this project- we don’t often get to see Jewish representations of this particular construction of ruggedness, especially outside the context of war or military, and I especially like the way that it ties into Americana in general.

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Still from The Game the Game. Angela Wasko. Computer Game. 2016. Denver, COs

In Angelo Wasko’s The Game the Game, players are thrust into the world of pickup artists, seeing the experience through the eyes of a wome being harassed by then. While the subject matter is different, Wasko’ ability to engage an emotional response out of an aubsurd yet potentially violent community encourages me to think about all mediums in formulating this idea.

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Instagram Feed for @mistermort. Mordechai Rubinstein. Digital Photography. 2017.

Mister Mort has been photographing menswear (and some women as well) on the streets of NY and occasionly beyond for the last couple decades and has an eye like no other. He manages to find these amazing through lines of American tradition in the most unexpected spaces, such as his recent high profile documentation of Deadhead culture over the last several years. With his own upbringing in the NY Chasid community, Rubinstein also often documents American Jews in a way that celebrates the wide variety of Judaic sartorial expression and tradition while emphasizing each persons unique self expression.

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Chai Baseball Hat found at thriftshop, unknown, photo from twitter user @AlecEngerson (blurring and emphasis mine). 
The other thing that started it all. This thing is an absolute beauty, especially after spending a while looking for something similar online and seeing contemporary offerings- the way this design borrows from traditional ball cap styles, from the wide shape to the matching eyelets and brim to the strong typography- it feels more vintage than it probably even is.

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My Baseball Years. Phillip Roth. New York Times. 1973.

One of the greatest essays on baseball and its symbolism by the complicated but often great Phillip Roth

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S2 Episode 25 — The Kibitz Podcast

Kibitz Podcast, Episode 25: The False Lens Of History. Dan Crane & Jessica Chaffin. Podcast. 2017. Los Angeles, CA.

The podcast that started it all, sorta. In this episode of The Kibitz, one of the hosts interviews Maya Benton, a museum curator, about a new exhibit of largely unseen photography by Roman Vichniac, a photographer famous for documenting Jewish Life pre-Holocaust for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Curating the show, Benton discovers a wide spectrum of Jewish life depicted, from rural to urban, and from observant to largely secular, despite the fact that Vichniac is most known for sort of “traditional” shtetl images of ultra observant men. The host posits that this was intentional at the time, as his photographs were commissioned for the express purpose of fundraising in the face of anti-semitism- also noting that she found captions Vichniac had included in his book, the Jewish coffee table staple  A Vanished World, incongruous with some of Vichniac’s negatives.  After the devastation of the Holocaust, these publicized images, which accounted for only a tiny percentage of the subjects Vichniac photographed during this time, became many peoples only visual representation of pre-war Jewish life, creating something of a false, or at least partial history of Judaism and Jewish life that still influences our ideas of the past today.

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(Chai) חי Ball! (baseball announcer voice)

If the other two entries ran a bit long for your taste, don’t worry- this one, at this point, is about as half baked as they come. Why am I admitting this in my class entry? I’ve been looking forward to IP for about as long as I’ve been going to stamps- maybe even a bit longer- back to writing my entry essay, and I have been thinking about what I might do nearly as long. There has been something near a dozen ideas I’ve batted around, adjusting as I talked to people taking the class, and became intrigued by new ideas. A while back I whittled it, coincidently to three ideas- two of which I just posted about... and the third? Nevermind, cuz I’m not doing it! I thought it would be a good idea to throw in a curveball, pun fully intended, and try to work out an idea in real time within the context of the class, instead of bringing in only ideas I’d spent some time with already. So- the idea itself? 

One of my favorite (and sadly now dormant) podcasts, The Kibitz, had an episode that really stuck with me- I’ll get into it more in its own entry, but basically the host and interviewee discussed the somewhat unintended effect of a very specific depiction of Jewish culture by the photographer Roman Vishniac being publicized to encourage the preservation of Jewish values in the face of increasing antisemitism becoming the de facto record of Jewish life pre-Holocaust, just by virtue of the high exposure of these images, and the lack or destruction of other documentation.

Since I heard this a few years back, I’ve thought a lot about the parts of Jewish cultural history that Vishniac left on the table (or in this case an archive), and how that has informed our image of contemporary Judaism, and even led us to idealize the “old-world”shtetl Judaism he was known for as a more authentic representation of Jewish culture. Then I saw a really cool baseball hat with a chai symbol ( חי ) on it, and I got this urge to do something clothing related to this subject, something that celebrates more secular parts of traditional Jewish life, like a love of baseball here in America, in a way that could add to this conversation.... 

And that’s all I got so far, which is an exciting place to be!!