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Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: Ivo Skoric 
Subject: LIVING IN AN INTERESTING COUNTRY
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From: Ivo Skoric 

Living In An Interesting Country

Fall 1995, a year from presidential elections: probable candidates
are tied at

thirty something percents. Nobody trusts any politician any more.
Both as a

result of traditional allegiances and more recent political events
(racial political

division of the South - after Sam Nuns retirement there is no
white Democrat

from the South, except Clinton, in Washington DC any more; Newt
Republicans

crusade against Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, Medicare
and

almost any social program in the country.. Which do benefit blacks
because

they still earn on average 60% less than whites), black voters
tend to favor

Democrat Clinton in polls (68%) even if he runs against Powell,
who is kind of

black (and even if he runs as independent). But so many blacks do
not vote: 8

millions of eligible black voters are unregistered. So, suddenly,
minister Louis

Farrakhan, who just up to recently forbade blacks to vote and to
participate in

evil white empire in any other way, riding on the wave of
increased popularity

after the O.J. trial ( Farrakhan's Nation of Islam guys were
bodyguards for

Simpson's attorney Cochran), organizes a million people march on
Washington

DC with the idea to register more blacks to vote. Clinton shy away
from

endorsement after O.J.'s acquittal - not to alienate his still
more numerous

white voters, particularly the "blood-sucking" Jews. But he is
obviously ecstatic

about the March's purpose. Dole, Gingrich and other Republicans
are of course

angry as hell seeing Clinton's electorate increasing. As a
godfather of white

American populism, Gingrich takes it personally that Farrakhan was
brought

to the stairs of "his" Congress. Amusement never ends: Farrakhan
threatens to

sue "white supremacist" Washington DC police for estimating his
million men

crowd on around 400,000 - 1.1 million shy of his and Chavis
estimate. Some

students from Boston University analyzed pictures digitally and
came up with a

number of 870,000. A perfect conflict resolution number. I'd come
up with the

same without digitalizing pictures. As if it was so important if
there was half a

million or two millions of people there. The message is clear:
Congress wants to

cut programs, that helped 30% blacks in past 30 years to reach
some equal

status in this society, while it is quite logical that another few
decades are

necessary for those programs to complete their job - and 60% of
blacks, who

still live in poverty, are obviously against such a Congressional
intent.

Farrakhan and Clinton are just politicians who use that anger to
their own

benefit at the moment. Particularly astonishing is that in the
land of the free'

one in three young black males is under police supervision. This
is a worse rate

than for soccer punks in former communist Yugoslavia.

-/-

British UNPROFOR commander Rose, who was so friendly with Serbian

military types from Pale, that Bosnian prime minister asked the UN
to take him

off his duty, now shoves the last wedge in the International
Community effort

to finally do something in Bosnia: telling to Americans that they
will have more

casualties in Bosnia than they had in Iraq if they send in ground
forces. This

created the desired effect and put Shalikashvili in pains before
Congress trying

to explain how he can't set a threshold on war casualties. Heh,
but then the

British government will have (and not only in theory, as it
accepted today) to

abandon it's desire to disarm IRA before the peace talks. Rose and
his likes

better take care of their own backyard before messing up other
people's

backyards.

I hope that he remembers the feast Serbian commanders did for
UNPROFOR -

slaughtering a pig, doomed to be feasted, right in front of them
with a sly

comment: "this is what we intend to do to those whom you want to
protect.."

-/-

Dr Lee, forensic doctor from O.J.'s defense team, after the case
went to work for

War Crimes Tribunal. Are we ready to watch Ratko Mladic pull the
"gloves don't

fit" knack?

-/-

The study showed that tobacco industry ads influence teens smoking
twice as

much as peer pressure, which means that it makes them four times
more likely

to start smoking. Yet, tobacco industry types say that in 16
countries where

tobacco ads have been banned, there was no significant decrease in
teen

smoking. They are probably both right. There is no other country
in the world

where ads play such a significant role in a teenager's life, as it
is here in the

U.S. Any ads - not just tobacco ads. In those other 16 countries
teens probably

do not feel compelled to imitate the false glamour of ads. Or
maybe the

industry in those countries just don't have the resources to
create glitzy

enough ads.

-/-

Halloween was almost banned as a satanic holiday in a Californian
high

school. This becomes an interesting country, too.

-/-

Yesterday I was at Extremely Refrigerated (cyberspace at

http://www.interport.net/~floating and meatspace at 61 Gansevoort
street).

My friends (two Serbs and a Bosnian) formed a well rehearsed hard
core band

Shining Skull and made a performance "Radio Sarajevo and Other
Dreams" for

their friends. I can't avoid commenting what Vlasta did this time.
No, he is not

from the band. He is the guy who rented a refrigerator and turned
it to an art

gallery and a concert place. Because Extremely Refrigerated *is*
in a meat

freezer. Vlasta's peculiar taste for ugly, gross and eerily
disgusting in art didn't

disappoint. It evolved. It was kind of non-invasive earlier during
raves in

Williamsburg area or during a brief resuscitation of Save the
Robots. But last

time he almost suffocated us inside of giant vinyl balloons for a
New Years

techno rave, and now he reached beyond what we use to see in Trent
Raznor's

videos. I always wonder how did an all-Yugoslav boy from Serbian
heartland

(Vlasta is from Pec) develop such love for urban decadence and
anti-aesthetics,

which in former Yugoslavia was usually associated with Slovenian
hard-core

industrial scene, Irwin Theater and Cosmokinethic Theater. But he
is definitely

there: spectators are trembling.

Extremely Refrigerated is a bare-bones place with sticky, moist
walls, a

concrete floor and a keg of beer right on the entrance. The smells
of its original

purpose are still there, which makes weaker stomachs uneasy. The
basement

suffers from several leaks and very low ceilings. Floor is covered
with water.

The place is chilly and damp (it is a meet locker after all). It
is arranged

Halloweenish with a lot of chic garbage. Huh, it looks almost like
my

apartment. Doesn't smell as bad, though.

Of the all installations displayed in the gallery, two are
particularly reminding

of the original purpose of this carcass repository place. In the
"V.I.P. room"

(well, even the refrigerators are built with VIP rooms in New
York; I guess that's

where the juiciest tenderloins go to) is a single piece of
artwork: a skull split in

half. Halves, placed on the concrete floor, are connected with a
thick chain.

Skull is sculpted out of ground meat (it is still bleeding).
Vlasta is not pleased.

He says that the piece is not ready yet: it has to start rotting
and smelling

really foul. Cool.

Second is a transparent plexiglass coffin full of little white
mice busy burrowing

the Styrofoam plate scavenging for food underneath. On a closer
look a curious

observer will see that the Styrofoam is carved out in a shape of
human body.

Vlasta explained that a guy actually strips naked and lies down in
that coffin,

and another person ties him up with little ropes like Gulliver in
the Land of

Lilliputians was tied up, an then the coffin is closed and mice
crawl all over his

body and perhaps nibble on him here and there. He does this only
on

Thursdays.

One mouse escaped. I caught him (I became prety good mouse hunter
sharing

apartment with a few of them) and then run around scaring women
like Beavis

in search of Butthead. I forgot to ask Vlasta if my nickle-bag
packed live

roaches collection qualifies, too. You know, when somebody asks
you for a

roach, you give him, well, a roach or  el rocho'.

Ivo