KRAX blog

New York Times fake: "It can be true, if we demand it"

una acción colectiva interesante en nueva york...
un fake del New York Times con las noticias que todos queremos leer ("Termina la guerra de Irak", "Tope a los sueldos de directivos de empresas", "salud pública para todos", etc...).
"It's about what's possible, if we think big and act collectively".

Parece que el fake está pensado hasta el mínimo detalle, como debe ser: el diseño del periódico, la web e inclusive las publicidades de la web!

!!!

 

----------------------------

November 12, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
   writers@nytimes-se.com
----------------------------

"SPECIAL" NEW YORK TIMES BLANKETS CITIES WITH MESSAGE OF HOPE AND CHANGE
Thousands of volunteers behind elaborate operation

  * PDF: http://www.nytimes-se.com/pdf
  * Ongoing video releases: http://www.nytimes-se.com/video

  * The New York Times responds: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pranksters-spoof-the-times/

Hundreds of independent writers, artists, and activists are claiming credit for an elaborate project, 6 months in the making, in which 1.2 million copies of a "special edition" of the New York Times were distributed in cities across the U.S. by thousands of volunteers.

The papers, dated July 4th of next year, were headlined with long-awaited news: "IRAQ WAR ENDS". The edition, which bears the same look and feel as the real deal, includes stories describing what the future could hold: national health care, the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for CEOs, etc. There was also a spoof site, at http://www.nytimes-se.com/.

"Is this true? I wish it were true!" said one reader. "It can be true, if we demand it." 

"We wanted to experience what it would look like, and feel like, to read headlines we really want to read. It's about what's possible, if we think big and act collectively", said Steve Lambert, one of the project's organizers and an editor of the paper.

"This election was a massive referendum on change. There's a lot of hope in the air, but there's a lot of uncertainty too. It's up to all of us now to make these headlines come true," said Beka Economopoulos, one of the project's organizers.  

"It doesn't stop here. We gave Obama a mandate, but he'll need mandate after mandate after mandate to do what we elected him to do. He'll need a lot of support, and yes, a lot of pressure," said Andy Bichlbaum, another project organizer and editor of the paper.

The people behind the project are involved in a diverse range of groups, including The Yes Men, the Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Not An Alternative, May First/People Link, Improv Everywhere, Evil Twin, and Cultures of Resistance.

In response to the spoof, the New York Times said only, "We are looking into it."  Alex S. Jones, former Times reporter who is an authority on the history of the paper, says: "I would say if you've got one, hold on to it. It will probably be a collector's item."

Battery Republic Activities in New York City: Sep. 21st - 28th

Hi All,

We will be facilitating a plethora of activity in New York City this week centered within the bar room at the Park Avenue Armory, and elsewhere throughout the city, in conjunction with our project The Battery Republic. Even if you are not in NYC this week there are plenty of opportunities for you to participate, and we'd love you for it. More information on how to join in on our activities is available below.

Read on...

The Battery Republic - NYC

Within the realms of Radical Democracy in America, small groups and their relationship to media have played a large role in myriad shifts and progressions of republican consciousness. The role that the tavern (in all its varied forms) has played within this history is expansive, and continuing. From groups like The Sons of Liberty in the late 1770's, to the clientele of Chicago's Dil Pickle Club in the early 1900's and further still into our time, the printed form (and now digital media) has served as a means of expanding ideas across time and place, augmenting the thoughts of a radical few into the desires and beliefs of a populist many in the United States.

With the strengths of this history as our bedrock, prior to the November 4th ballot, we will begin the first iteration of The Battery Republic – a mobile tavern aimed at facilitating discussions regarding how politics (in all its nebulous glory) enters into our everyday lives, and how our everyday lives can affectively alter our existing political consciousness and, in turn, our political systems. In tandem with these discussions and activities we will collaboratively compile two editions of the Journal of Radical Shimming on these themes to be disseminated in print and online prior to the election.

Overview: www.red76.com/batteryrepublic.html

CBGB's and (sub)Tonic, NYC

Autonomous cultural spaces are few, everyday less, in a growing system of rules and control-supervision. The self gesture of public spaces means especially an important freedom from political control and economical goals. Therefore, especially in capital cities, places where every square meter is worth like gold, independent places are often threatened by other economical interests.
Even if we mark the importance of these autonomous places in the city, as free spaces of gesture and expression on social, cultural and political level, we see that there is no understanding from the public party to support their presence in the city as part of a 'cultural landscape'..

In Barcelona there is the latest year a large struggle on autonomous places in the city. Especially in the neighborhood Poblenou these places reduced from 30 to 5 (such as Escoseca and Itaca). Main reasons herefore is the re-valuation of the area and reformation of the zone.

The reason of this article brings us to New Yok City, where in one year we saw the eviction or moving of 2 well known music clubs, well known for their 'informal' character; CBGB's and (sub)Tonic. 2 clubs internationally known for their quality of 'open creative spaces' and 'experimental programation'. Both clubs are victim of big cities gentrification, that not only moves people but also small 'culture' places.
Now, CBGB's moved last year to St.Marks Place, next to Bowery, where it can continue his egocentric experimental program of 'avantgarde rock' music; discovering new bands and giving
to young musicians a scene and public. Tonic closes the 17th of April '07 his doors, and continues collaborating in the programmation of other clubs and openair festivals.

In the New York Times (march 31, '07)
"-- The New York music scene can usually absorb the loss of one club or another without too much difficulty. If one shuts down, another will open pretty soon.

But when the Lower East Side club Tonic closes after a performance by John Zorn on April 13, it will be an especially hard blow. For nine years, this tiny room on Norfolk Street, in the former home of the Kedem kosher winery, has been the focal point of the downtown avant-garde scene, with an eclectic booking policy bridging jazz, noise-rock, folk and all sorts of unclassifiable styles.

“Tonic was the last bastion in Manhattan of live, creative music,” said Steven Bernstein, a trumpeter whose bands Sex Mob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra have been fixtures there.

As gentrification has spread through the Lower East Side, Tonic has felt the pinch. Gleaming new apartment high-rises have gone up on either side of the club, and recent raids by the authorities closed its downstairs bar, cutting off a critical source of revenue. --"