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From the Editor Letters by Benjamin Hunter |
In 1972 Andy Warhol created a piece of art illustrating the frustration of the era. The Vietnam war was raging into its second decade and thousands of America boys had been taken from their homes to a vacation in hell; many retuning in body bags. In March of 1972 the cover story of Time Magazine read “Is America Going Broke?” It was the worst of times economically and psychologically. The richest country on earth couldn’t take care of its people. The misappropriation of taxes toward the losing fight in Vietnam, and the fracturing of the middle class created an environment of uncertainty. Warhol’s “Vote McGovern” piece illustrated his contempt for the goblin president.
Early in the primary season my partners and I had discussed how we at Wide-Eyed could do our part to make an impact on this year’s election. When we launched the magazine back in April we contacted Shepard Fairey over at Obey Giant and asked him for permission to run the “Obama Progress” poster that has appeared on the back of Wide-Eyed each month. Music, art, and progress are the pillars of the relationship between David Dodde, Shaun Saylor and myself as partners. At the time it was uncertain as to whom would be the Democratic candidate, but we were and still are convinced that Obama is our nation’s best chance for a paradigm shift toward progress. So this month David suggested that we make our own contribution to the political landscape.
In last month’s issue David created a serigraph of McCain; the tired, boring, palsied old man. So white his complexion bore a pink hue. Under McCain’s profile the phrase “Vote Obama” reflected David’s homage to Warhol’s 1972 “Vote McGovern” piece.
We contemplated running it on this month’s cover as a follow up to the Democratic National Convention, however, when circulating 20,000 copies of that tired boring face, we didn’t want the message to get lost in translation. Quite frankly, McCain deserves no airplay, his lyrics are boring and his beat isn’t correct. Instead we decided to expand the endorsement to good old yellow belly G’dub. That vile little monkey boy needed one more spoof. Yes, we realize every artist from A-Z has toyed with the portrait of the Idiot-in-Chief, but we wanted to make his endorsement of Obama official.
It’s a colorful goodbye to eight years of insanity and a certain hello to the era of the perpetual dance party. We at Wide-Eyed are sick of being pissed off about G’dub, team pseudo-Jesus, and the mind police. They are fear mongering, intolerant and ignorant toward the environment and science. They’ve raped and pillaged civil liberties — it’s exhausting. Let’s just say BORING.
What’s the best thing you can do when you get bored? Change up the playlist and have a dance party. In November the boring old playlist will expire and if we remember to come together for the dance party, we might be on to something.
So now that I have clarified our intentions for this months cover, I’d like to get you all to actively participate. Next time you are in your car with your pals, park it arbitrarily in a public location, smack the back cover of this magazine on the hood and open the doors, turn up the tunes and dance for Obama and dance for freedom from boredom. Send us videos of your dance party (feedback@wideeyednation.com) and we’ll throw them up on the website. Obama is going to make that change, and we can have a killer boogie time getting him there.
All the Best,
Editor in Chief
