Society of the Spectacle Part ___ or Wagging the Dog in the Czech Republic

Yesterday, the New York Times posted an article about a collective of artists called Ztohoven that simulated a fake nuclear bomb explosion on a local Czech news channel. Not only is the name of their collective a play on words in Czech, members go by names like Roman Tyc and Mira Slava (meaning peace and fame). These guys like to play with reality on multiple levels and to put it in layman's terms, I'M SO WITH THAT!

THE ZTOHOVEN THEMSELVES!:



See the video below from Czech news television via YouTube (there's no volume):



Here's the link to the collective's (sparse) webpage, in both English and Czech.

Tonight, I lift my glass of ice cold Pilsner to the Ztohoven!

Breaking News!

I love online new sources like CNN and New York Times. They make headlines out of bullshit. For example, today there was an article posted on CNN.com, taking over their homepage about how Bush calls Iran a "threat to world peace." Does this REALLY deserve front-page attention? Don't we already know this? And isn't the biggest threat to world peace George Dubya himself?

Instead of addressing topical and applicable issues, George W. seems to be a pro at stating the obvious, "don't blow our warships up, there will be severe consequences." Furthermore, why does he always have to be so goddamn preemptive? To merely instill fear? Or is it because he lacks the knowledge to go further and has to rely on his wonderful Cabinet before he can provide any suitable evidence against our 'enemies.'

It's sad because the New York Times has lost a great deal of credibility, especially in the past few years. Newspapers and reporting has gone the wayside. Journalists and critics can talk about the negative/positive effects blogging has had on mass media, but I don't see anyone IN the mass media actively trying to stir things up. Why all the apathy?

Viva democracia.