this blog is a visual notebook of inspirations for a group of bandit bloggers. we post things we see and like. our lives don’t revolve around singular topics and neither does our blog. sorry! nothing is in-or-out of context here. enjoy xx
rene burri photograph of ernesto che-guevara 1963 havana
lisa howard and fidel castro first meeting havana riviera hotel april 21 1963. in the early 1960s, lisa howard became ABC news’s first woman reporter, and was the first woman to have her own national network television news show (insert: mole). howard developed a relationship with cuba’s fidel castro, whom she met to interview, and was a go-between for a time between castro and the american white house.
blue bird production “the faces of che” and the cuban revolution
a very good and rare documentary (watch it before this bootleg is taken down) on cuba and its revolution with some details about the relationship of che and castro that i didn’t know. worth a watch for any history buff. by xy
“the agnelli look was about ease, grace and never trying too hard. like the dinner party just happened without any planning.”
“was he vain? He invented it.”
“he had the view of Aristotle – where goodness and beauty overlap.”
three quotes that sum up gianni agnelli and la dolce vita. this video is part 2 of the HBO documentary agnelli (2017). genuine style is both timeless and priceless, it is innate and money (though not necessary to have flair) in the hands of agnelli made his life shine so brightly that the whole world was lit up. by uh
sykes-picot-agreement was a 1916 secret treaty between the united kingdom and france, with assent from the russian empire and the kingdom of italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual partition of the (turkish) ottoman empire.
full documentary : how britain started the arab-israeli conflict
“the bitter struggle between arab and jew for control of the holy land has caused untold suffering in the middle east for generations. it is often claimed that the crisis originated with jewish emigration to palestine and the foundation of the state of israel. yet the roots of the conflict are to be found much earlier – in british double-dealing during the first world war. this is a story of intrigue among rival empires; of misguided strategies; and of how conflicting promises to arab and jew created a legacy of bloodshed which determined the fate of the middle east.” a good watch – one more documentary to better understand the world we live in. by dd
omer bartov born 1954 is an israeli-born historian
bartov also served as a soldier in the IDF between 1973-1976. he is the samuel pisar professor of holocaust and genocide studies at brown university, where he has taught since 2000. bartov is a noted historian of the holocaust.
“the US holocaust museum has sighted him as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of genocide.”
thank you amy goodman and democracy now for this very insightful and informative interview. always good to hear it from an expert. by xy
now that xy is on a history lesson trip, here’s a great snippet into the past
before the world lost their mind – and when there was still some hope for peace
they try and make is sound complicated but its really not…
there is a land that 3 religions find sacred. they once all lived together on the same land. they can do so again. if you just stop the dehumanizing language of racism and hate and fucking with one another until one side goes mental. rinse repeat. you have to stop demanding the entire place for yourself, and using civilian terror tactics to win. we need a fair and just mediator as these people have been unable to make peace for 75 years and the way its going there is none in sight. finally, not that there is a god, but if there was one for all you delusional people, no one god gave this land to any one people. if you believe that i gotta a book that gives me everything you got. finally lets be fair, be nice — if you are in charge, find a way to live together and stop calling it a “religious state” for just one of the 3 faiths, or split the land 3 ways or make it a UNESCO world heritage site with no one government ruling it. i’m no politician but you guys are fucking up the entire world over this shit piece of land 90% of us don’t care about… by dd
a deeply personal documentary, dena spends a day in hebron retracing the footsteps of her father, who was born and raised in hebron. our reporter is given a tour by a kind hearted Israeli IDF ex-soldier. it is a look at life before october 7th massacres in the palestinian west bank territories which was and is not controlled by hamas
while these stories of human suffering can be heart breaking, i hope you can see there are good and righteous people everywhere including the IDF which you may believe to be harsh as they defend their country. there are also so many israeli’s who have stood up against the collateral damage that is the killing of innocent woman and children and do not support netanyahu. as long as there is hate and bigotry on either side there will be no peace and both governments are guilty of not delivering that to the good people of each side.
finally this can not be watched without a bit of history on how this country came to be and why. “how israel was created“
please educate yourselves by reading and watching multiple sides of the same story and judge for yourself. everything is biased, some are more biased than others. I find these to be factual and fair, but that is me.
if you watch this and you feel hatred in you, you are falling for the trap that is set for us all. understand your world and know that no one people can be all bad or good. there are good people and bad people in every country and culture. if this makes you hate all jews know that you have succumbed to oldest of racist means. you can condemn an act of a government or a group but to assign that guilt to their family and neighborhood and all such people is what we all must condemn. by xy
watch israeli historian and political scientist ilan pappe (jewish) debate journalist for jerusalem post melanie phillips (jewish)
and british born reporter and oxford graduate mehdi hasan (muslim) debate knesset member einat wilf (jewish)
since all middle easterners have been silenced and equated to “animals”, branded “incompetent, ignorant, uneducated and never to be believed”… it is nice to hear these words from 3 out of 4 speakers of jewish decent and one oxford graduated “muslim brown boy” that just maybe you can “half-believe”.
what is terrorism?
regardless of the bios, this is an interesting debate with some factual historic background to help you sort out your own thoughts. in this age of misinformation and propaganda please always research facts from several opposing sources in order to reach a best guess scenario. somethings of course, require no research – occupying, locking and controlling a people is wrong, kidnapping innocent civilians, killing the elderly and defenseless citizens is also outright wrong and all of them should be condemned. and while self defense is warranted to bring the perpetrators to justice, bombing an entire neighborhood, or schools, or a high-rises is no-way to justify getting a mass shooter inside. “collective punishment of civilians to achieve a political goal” is wrong and by definition is terrorism – no matter who partakes in that.
the troubles did not begin on oct 7th as many would like us to believe. the blood shed and oppression and resistance and terrorism has been going on for more than 75c years. our stance remains: condemn all collective punishment/terrorism no matter who partakes in them
bring the perpetrators to justice (*sometimes they are a group, sometimes they are a state)
free all hostages including wrongful detainment of political prisoners inside israel
stop the war and especially stop the killing of civilians – needless to say jewish, christian, or muslim… but especially atheists
negotiate a “just” peace with equally strengthened parties and an unbiased judge (meaning not the U.S.) to reach a two state solution or a one state with equal rights.
finally zionism is an ideology like communism, you can surely be against communism but not racist towards russians, or chineses who were communist or some of the founders of communism who where jewish. this is a mafia style gag order, routed in zero rational or reality.
…to peace and collaboration of all humans, and to everyone standing up to bullies, on the playground and on the world map – amen and dog bless america. by xy
apple think different ad campaign 1997 albert einstein
apple think different ad campaign 1997 john lennon and yoko ono
gap kakhis ad campaign 1993 ernest hemingway
gap kakhis ad campaign 1993 miles davis
i never connected the two, but apple’s “think different” campaign by chiat/day LA that came out in 1997 is practically the same as gap’s kakhis campaign that came out in 1993. who would have thought apple and lee claw of chiat would so blatantly rip a campaign form gaps in-house department! granted the kakhis ads where purely on the surface. miles wore kakhis and if you want to be just as cool wear khakis too. granted there was no gap around when miles wore those but that’s a minor note.
apple on the other hand connected to the thinking and culture of those individuals like john and yoko and einstein, and not so much on the appearance… but the idea to take an old cool picture and slap your logo on it – was not only the laziest idea but also one of the most beautiful, it really worked.
still some of my favorite campaigns, because they beautified the streets rather than pollute them. or so I say… by uh
elon musks spacex new starship super heavy rocket go for launch and the spacex’s replica nasa spaceshuttle version tesmanian falcon heavy
now i know kanye west and donald trump are the real genius’ out there but before elon, there was the incredible nasa saturn program and the german super villain engineer, and SS party member, dr. wernher von braun(the man behind the Nazi V2 rocket at peenemunde during world war II) who after the war “helped” take the first US astronaut to outer space and eventually to the moon.
rockets of the world by country – amazed at some of the tiny countries and their tiny rockets…
I had the pleasure of meeting and having breakfast with astronaut buzz aldrin (brag) so I may be biased, but here are 2 great documentaries that i enjoyed watching. if link is broken try and search for “nasa doco – the the moon – Pt1 – awesome” its a national geographic docu that is no longer available unfortunately…
enjoy – amazing to see how they risked it all to go into the unknown, the fogging up of the astronaut helmets, the first EVAs and 170 beat per minute heartbeat, one astronaut lost 10.5 lbs in just 2 hours of EVA – upon return they discovered 2 lbs of sweat in the shoes of his space suits. fascinating and impressive. by uh
my friend was crying to me to the other day, she was let down because the friends she thought she had, turned out not to be such friends. in trying to console her i said “you know what? i don’t have many true friends either, but that’s ok.” my father told me when i was a kid that “if, by the end of your life, you can count your friends on one hand, you should consider yourself a lucky man.” i couldn’t quite understand it at age 12… i thought i already had 20+ odd friends, but i so understand now what he meant. not sure if that helped her that night. but i was up till 5am drinking and talking to an artist who was visiting new york and what he said to me was even more profound… i’ll tell you…
we joked how today, people have thousands of followers but zero friends. i was trying to name a few of my good friends that i have acquired through the years. some had dropped off my list but came back into my life and redeemed themselves. i was able to roll off a few, three, four… and we then laughed, as neither of us named the other. you know, its not easy to become a friend – that’s no easy task…
he said when he was in art school and before he left for prague, he was longing for a new chapter. he was assessing the people he had spent his time with and sorting out in his head who they really were and why they had even come together. people travel not just physically but mentally and intellectually. when he told his teacher about this vacancy of souls the teacher said this:
“… don’t worry and don’t fret that you have so few friends now… you will surely find your friends in history one day.”
oh my beautiful jesus – whom i so don’t believe in – i think this was really one of the most beautiful of truths i have heard in so many years. i just stared at him for some time, and a warm smile just lite up my face. it all dawned on me, and crashed onto me… it connected all my dots… i just loved that… and i wanted to share it with you all – but more importantly i wanted to put it up here so i will never forget it. now, i can come here whenever i need, and remember the wealth of friends i have! and these are just the few i am able to roll off… there are many more!
tell me about love
tell me about dignity
tell me about sacrifice
tell me about range
tell me everything
tell me about single mindedness
tell me about fairness
… you can smile now.
ok now go to bed… and remember… you may have friends that you have never met, but in the end your true friends are those who inspire you and change you for the better. thank you to HT for our late night chats, and all of this, we miss you… my new friend! by dd
“this is my very first vlog EVER!” says alissa violet, making the world a better place one video at a time
and here’s the swedish equivalent, elin ersson, who was being trashed by haters for doing all of this for some fame and attention!! oh really? refugee deportation from gothenburg to Afghanistan the perfect topic for teenage fame.
I mean how horrible can people be to look past the brave efforts of this young girl, risking financial and physical damage to save a strangers life she believes is at risk. these horrible people consider her action to be fueled by self promotion? if this is how people do self promotion, and chase after their 5 minutes of fame, then be it… how fantastic that would be. yuuuuuge respects for swedish lioness elin ersson, so impressed with your bravery and conviction the world needs more of you. aside from the julian assange incident, i think i simply love sweden and even more now. we love you erin xx. by kt
above the 2500 year celebration party, “decadence and downfall : the worlds most expensive party”
andnow that we are on this topic; here is “the fall of the shah” about the revolution of 1979. this may also be of interest.
the deposed shah of iran had a massive party to celebrate the 2,500 years of the persian empire, inviting the heads-of-state from around the world. it was the party of the century and monarchs, and the like, hustled to insure the right seats at the table. this of course was just a few year before the revolution and the beginning of islamic republic of iran. fun little movie from BBC – documenting the 2500 year celebration of the persian heritage. happy norouz, and for the rest of you happy first day of spring. by dd
a visual collective outlet of inspiration
