Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Chet Tiffany – Genre Trendsetter

Posted on by
2

What you are about to read is a ________________about a lot of things. I don’t know what it is. In fact, “I” think this piece reads sort of like the experience of walking through those parking lot markets where acrylic mink blankets with the likes of Bieber, pit bulls, Pink Floyd and, of course, unicorns are being sold. It’s corny with a hint of cheese and alotta kitsch.

Click to enlarge!

 

I don’t agree much with the content, but, man, Chet Tiffany is writing in a way I’ve never seen. What is it exactly? What “is” this style? What would you call it? What genres are being mixed?

My friend, Vanessa, discovered Chet Tiffany in the Giant Nickel classifieds newspaper. Thank you, Vanessa, for recognizing something many of us have never thought we wanted to see before. And, Chet Tiffany, thank you for deciding to publish your work.

Competition Update: #DefineRhetoric @HarlotTweets

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been one month since we began our #DefineRhetoric competition!  We’re happy to say that we have added some funny, insightful, and outstanding examples of rhetoric defining rhetoric!  We’ve got rhetoric about rhetoric that’s rhetoric (via @plcorbett!). Whoa! If you haven’t checked out the competition, you’ll find instructions here: #DefineRhetoric

And we thank all our participants so far and hope they continue submittin’ cause there’s no limit on the number of definitions you can submit. Check ‘em out then laugh, cry, and rhetoric all over everywhere and write your own definition of rhetoric so ya increase your chances of winning the prestigious and highly coveted “Definition of Rhetoric of the Year – 2012.”

Here’re a few definitions we’ve received so far-

  • The Borg had it all wrong.  Resistance is rhetoric. @LouFisto
  • Rhetoric: Don’t get it wet or feed it after midnight. @LouFisto
  • Rhetoric = Wearing too much eyeliner after he leaves you. @donorahillard
  • Rhetoric = Any almost-expired birthday cake. @donorahillard
  • Rhetoric is a fancy label for the process and consequences of naming and framing reality. @anokaydane
  • #DefineRhetoric is an act of rhetoric itself, defined through action. Rhetoric outside of action is like Latin, dead on arrival. @plcorbett
  • Rhetoric is when everybody wants some and I want some too. Ow! V. H. Alen  @PaulMuhlhauser
  • Rhetoric is a bag of Halloween candy, sometimes you get the good stuff and sometimes you get apples with razor blades. @TheOriginalRock
  • The role of rhetoric is convincing people of the truth so they can dismiss their ignorance. #DefineRhetoric @TheOriginalRock
  • #definerhetoric: utterly the bass line in Lou Reed’s “Walk On the Wild Side.” Tonight anyway @thatssomcginnis

There are about 3 ½ months to submit your definition of rhetoric to Harlot. Then we’ll select and announce THE definition of rhetoric of the year with the publishing of our next issue.

If you’ve got some rhetorical inflammation and need relief, we prescribe #DefineRhetoric. Good luck!

enculturation: McLuhan at 100

Posted on by
Reply

If you haven’t already, I encourage to check out enculturation‘s latest issue: Marshall McLuhan @ 100: Picking Through the Rag and Bone Shop of a Career, launched on the final day of centenary celebrations, 21 years to the day of McLuhan’s death.  Editors David Beard and Kevin Brooks have pulled together quite a stunning issue.

McLuhan quote

image by stefan.erschwendner, flickr

Breaking: Photojournalism Isn’t Entirely Objective

Posted on by
Reply

Via PetaPixel comes this post linking to a short documentary by Ruben Salvadori on the techniques commonly used by photographers in framing, staging, and otherwise embellishing conflict photography. Those readers interested in visual rhetoric, citizen journalism, rhetorical ethics, and related topics will likely find this video a useful critique:

Here’s a fascinating video in which Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori demonstrates how dishonest many conflict photographs are. Salvadori spent a significant amount of time in East Jerusalem, studying the role photojournalists play in what the world sees. By turning his camera on the photographers themselves, he shows how photojournalists often influence the events they’re supposed to document objectively, and how photographers are often pushed to seek and create drama even in situations that lack it.

Photojournalism Behind the Scenes [ITA-ENG subs] from Ruben Salvadori on Vimeo.

With extra rhetoric, please . . .

Posted on by
Reply

Rhetoric in the news:

Herman Cain's Rhetoric Pie

Herman Cain's Rhetoric Pie

It’s true (and perhaps to be expected) that rhetoric is implicitly defined here as bombastic sound-bites, caustic charges thick with generalization, delivered with unexamined confidence. Sadly, we’ve gotten used to having rhetoric framed this way (though we certainly should not accept it). What interests me, though, is the use of “extra” that’s further emphasized with the heaping mess of pizza glob and goop. It points us to a quantitative framing of rhetoric instead of a qualitative one. To stick with the metaphor: rhetoric may be perfectly acceptable as a garnish, a topping to be sprinkled judiciously on something substantive, but if the “toppings” are piled too high and wide we’ll get sick.

It’s a remarkably unproductive way to frame rhetoric that should signal to rhetoricians everywhere that our work is cut out for us . . .