Iran

Today, June 20 from Getty via HuffPo's live blog.

Art's Happening: Sara Rahbar

(Sara Rahbar, American Democracy Textile, 68x50, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.)

I found out about this artist, Sara Rahbar, while doing some research at the museum yesterday. Rahbar will be speaking in a panel with the South Asian Women's Creative Collective this Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. She is also involved in an exhibition currently on view at the Queens Museum of Art called "This Case of Conscience”: Spiritual Flushing and the Remonstrance. I haven't seen the show yet, but can recommend checking out her myspace page which includes some of Rahbar's photography, painting, and images of her really unusual and interesting textiles.

(Sara Rahbar, Hosein and I, Oppression Series #2 photo shoot, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.)

Dose of Rage

Hey!!

Some little "Iranian" boats harassed some not little US Navy Ships in international waters this week prompting Bush and Co. to freak out and pout and spit. A video came out showing the little boats zipping around accompanied by a voice with some accent saying “I am coming to you,” and “You will explode after a few minutes". Then, Iran released a video that doesn't show the boats harassing or getting close to the ships and doesn't have the ominous threatening voice.

So, now!! The Pentagon has backed off of their claim about the threatening voice in the original video. They now say they can not confirm the voice came from the little boats!!!!

The problem is that the original news story claiming the harassment will be the story that most people will remember. The Pentagon's backtracking, can not really be explained in a 4 minute news story without explaining the whole scenario, the multiple stories, the two videos, etc., etc. So even thought the true story is coming out now the fake story, the one saying Iranians are crazy and aggressive, is the one that will generally linger. It is a perfect tactic to promote fear, immediately present the simple evil and danger and worry about the actual details later.