I managed to catch the 2nd episode of the "Clarice" series recently. It channeled the Waco cult situation, also known as the Waco, Texas massacre. That was the controversial law enforcement siege of a compound that belonged to the Branch Davidian religious cult. In the 2nd episode, Clarice deals with Novak, the leader of a secessionist militia group, hoping to avoid the debacle that happened when the Waco cult compound caught fire during the G-men's … [Read more...]
Popular Culture and True Crime – Tutorial I – Serial Killer trading cards?
About the same time that Michael Aamodt, a professor at Radford University in Virginia, started cataloguing serial killers, trading cards popped up. Aamodt's Serial Killer Data Base, compiled with the help of students, is academic, respectable. See here for a prior blog re Aamodt's Radford work. Serial killer Trading cards are not respectable, at least they weren't back in 1992. They are still bought and sold on Amazon, Etsy, and Ebay. Aamodt's catalogue has over five thousand entries … [Read more...]
‘40 Years a Prisoner’- Film about MOVE vs Philly Cops.
How well I remember the days leading up to what seemed like just another incident of conservative urban police officials not understanding evolving radical beliefs and ideologies of the time. I'd just finished grad school in West Philadelphia, but still got MOVE updates from friends I'd visited in the Powelton Village area in the 1970s. MOVE MOVE isn't an acronym. It's just the name of a Panther-esque revolutionary group that was anti-govt, anti-corp, and anti-tech. Called 'emselves … [Read more...]
White supremacy increasing. Need civil rights activist heroes.
Calling the civil rights activist — wherever you may be. We need you now. Why" To combat the rise in hate crimes experienced worldwide. Data from multiple sources suggest this is so, not just info from news accounts about egregious crimes. The latest being the terror attacks on two New Zealand mosques, killing 50 and injuring 50. We need the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr. and many of the men and women in his orbit. We know a lot about the civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, for … [Read more...]
Honoring Martin Luther King, Painting, and Writing.
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his holiday in the U.S., I've added paintings I did of '60s & '70s American heroes to my gallery. Most all of these heroes were assertive, yet nonviolent, agents for change and justice. The possible exception is Dag Hammarskjold whose United Nations peacekeepers around the world had to defend themselves, sadly, with armed force on occasion. I painted these and other works at an artists' commune in a warehouse, which is featured in the book I'm … [Read more...]
‘Seven Deadly Sins’ paintings: Blow-ups & Interpretations.
Deadly sins in some faiths today refer to behavior outside the norm, acts that estrange people from "being right with God." (Catholics also call these less serious transgressions "cardinal" or "capital" sins, the latter because they engender other sins or vices. "Mortal" sins, by contrast, are much more serious and include such acts as murder and other felony crimes.) Paintings — Bad people, according to some Faiths. The Deadly Sins series. A Public Relations message about a recent … [Read more...]
Lust, blue collar crime, and A DEATH IN BELMONT.
I've been reading a lot of true crime books lately as well as finishing up a series of paintings I call "The Seven Deadly Sins." Currently, I'm reading Sebastian Junger's A death in Belmont, and my painting of "Lust" in the series seems especially apropos. You see, the book is about the sex-crazed Boston Strangler who terrorized parts of Boston during the 1960's. Blue collar crime...and lust. Here's a summary of the book: A fatal collision of three lives in the most intriguing and original … [Read more...]