local occurrences i am convinced were staged, edition 01/18
In our spectacular society, we assume that everything that seems coincidental must have been contrived.
Here are two local news items this week that I immediately assumed — almost certainly incorrectly — were staged by the people involved:
Ravenstahl spots planner at Pitt game, sends him back to Hill meeeting.
Immediate assumption: this guy was willing to take a fall so that the mayor could look good. I guess the more likely root is that the guy really did just go to the game of his own accord and the mayor immediately realized that HE would be the one who got shit over this, since we in the media like to give him shit about things like this. I mean, seriously, Todd. Luke Ravenstahl giving you flak about skipping out on a meeting for a sports game is like Jack Kevorkian laying into you for helping someone commit suicide.
MFONE gets arrested the day before an art show he’s part of opens at the Mattress Factory.
Immediate assumption: Mattress Factory maven sees the publicity value in having one of the artists in her show arrested on the eve of the opening, sets him up to get caught. The other fun part of this article is the detective-cum-critic from the city police:
Detective Frank Rende, who has been involved in Mr. Montano’s case, has described him as “a real talent. He’s an artist, a vandal-slash-artist. These other guys are copycats. But they’re all vandals.”
For those of you who are more visual learners, here’s a venn diagram, with added commentary from Montano’s dad taken into account:
Montano belongs in that tiny red spot where “real artists, vandals, super nice guys, and amazing painters” all intersect. What a dude!
there’s nothing quite like a Venn diagram for a good ol fashioned LOL.
The Venn diagram is brilliant. For a minute I thought it might be slightly flawed — I thought, Can’t nice guys be copycats? Upon further reflection, I realized you’re absolutely right. Nice guys, by definition, are not copycats. Thanks for laying it out.
Yes. Copycats and nice guys, mutually exclusive. Glad you’ve come around to seeing things my way.
Actually, my issue, looking back, is that I left room for there to be graffiti artists who aren’t copycats NOR real artists. I wonder what exactly these folks would be, if neither of those?
WOW.
Also, my security word was, “m4nny.”