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Bag’s Take-Away:
What?? Two breastfeeding covers in a row?
(photo: Marco Grob for TIME
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Bag’s Take-Away:
In Asia, we guess patronizing the insanity over an Asian basketball player takes precedence over the patronizing/lampooning of an Asian leader. Second thought: if a phrase would have been objectionable for the Asian markets, it’s probably got the same effect elsewhere. Third thought: Both easy lay-ups.
via: TIME
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Bag’s Take-Away:
What makes the TIME “Person of the Year” cover as good as it is?
1. It’s a woman! — because the protests have also been phenomenal on gender terms … and speaking truth to testosterone.
2. …And, how often has a woman even been TIME’s “Person of the Year?” (Or, “Man of the Year,” till ‘99. More below.)
3. She’s threatening but she’s not. (Eyes vs. mask. Left eye vs. right eye.)
4. It’s truly international. If she pulls for Middle Eastern, the background skews heavily domestic. But then, we’re a melting pot, right?
5. TIME gets to do the “You” choice again, but this time — nothing like some hard times to put a dent in the narcissism — it’s all about “us.”
6. The design, especially the graphical inlay in the kerchief, riffs off TIME’s Shepard Fairey’s Obama HOPE 2008 Person of the Year cover. The take-away: Obama has lost the spark and the message to the kids and the street.
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Update: A few people have asked how I know it’s a woman. I also think part of the cleverness of the cover is that the figure might be a male. One reason is that the illustration skews so strongly female, including the two figures inset in the kerchief (forehead and bottom, center) and the figure top right just off the hat. The most definitive graphic signifier, however, are the eyelashes.
Note on TIME’s “women of the year”: If I’ve got my math right, I count only 3 identifiable “women of the year” out of the 84 selections, the last being Corazon Aquino in ‘86. Of course, this year’s cover is “generic,” similar to how women, more lately, have been included as part of a group, if in an more token way (including “Bill Gates’ wife” as 3rd wheel in ‘05, or the woman soldier in ‘03. Otherwise, “women of the year” have been given the nod as part of their own group — see “The Whistleblowers” in ‘02 or “Women of the Year” in ‘75. This link has the collection in one tidy place. (illustration credit: Shepard Fairey)
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Bag’s Take-Away:
TIME world-wide cover watch: “Why Don’t They Like Me?” vs. “Why Don’t They Like Me Anymore?” vs. “Should I Let Them Like Me?”—————
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Bag’s Take-Away:
1. America’s had as much anxiety as it can handle, thank you very much?2. U.S. exceeds its protest quota. Media “Occupied out”?
3. GOP Isolationism is catching?—————
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Bag’s Take-Away:
Your news quiz of the day. What’s the different between these four editions of the new TIME cover featuring Platon’s portrait of Rick Perry? … See answer below the boilerplate.
(photo: Platon for TIME)
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————Right, the U.S. edition omits the sub-head: “Can the governor of Texas become the next U.S. President?” Of course, some would argue the text is necessary to help overseas readers answer the question: “Who’s this Rick Perry guy?” In comparision, the American media — driven home by the Platon-treatment — has already convinced itself of the first answer.
Bag’s Take-Away:
I find this Times Square display pathetically gratuitous and jingoistic, especially knowing it was produced and distributed by NASDAQ’s media arm! How else does one interpret this, given the sponsorship, than Wall St. retribution, topped off with the use of windows — after bin Laden’s already been terminated — to poke his eyes out. Plain and simple, this is the kind of image — twisting the body in the wind, three days later, Madison Avenue-style in the heart of America’s entertain and tourist center — that “makes them” hate us (and our tall buildings, and and our power).(photo: (AP Photo/ NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.) caption: This Monday, May 2, 2011 photo, provided by NASDAQ OMX Group, shows the cover of a special issue of Time magazine on the death of Osama bin Laden displayed on the Nasdaq screen in New York’s Times Square. The issue, featuring a red �X� over bin Laden�s face, will hit newsstands on Thursday, May 5, 2011. The magazine says it is the fourth cover in TIME�s history to feature the red �X.� Other covers showed Adolf Hitler on May 7, 1945, Saddam Hussein on April 21, 2003, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on June 19, 2006.)
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Bag’s Take-Away:
Not sure why TIME persists on making a funny out of Ghaddafi while people are being slaughtered. TIME Photo is stocked with the most talented and professional photo people. Is this pressure from corporate for cheap clicks?
Once you stop guffawing over the (Arab stereotyped tent-dweller’s) color-coordinated fly swatter, here’s my post last week on their “Muammar’s crazy clothes” slideshow.
(photo: KONSTANTIN CHERNICHKIN/ REUTERS / CORBIS)
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