C is for печенье, that's good enough for me
December 11, 2020 7:17 PM   Subscribe

 
Whatever the truth, Comte comes across like a huge dick.
posted by Carillon at 7:22 PM on December 11, 2020 [44 favorites]


OMG, this is hilarious to see on MeFi, this has been the non-stop talk of my Peoria-centric FB feed and everybody is just tickled by the whole story. (I was even talking with the artist briefly on a mutual friend's wall) And mad at the property owner, because everyone loved the weird Cookie Monster mural.

Peoria's made a huge push for murals, especially in older, warehouse-y parts of the city. (Also for sculptures, there are multiple "sculpture walks" in the downtown and warehouse districts.) Some of the murals are very strange, and some of them are changed every 3 months or so, so it's not THAT weird that someone would call up and say, "Hey, paint me a mural" and the guy would be like, "Okay, weird peace land cookies mural, but okay!"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:34 PM on December 11, 2020 [27 favorites]


I can’t speak with any confidence about the Peoria street art scene, but where I come from, putting up a mural is the best way to keep tags off a blank wall. And whitewashing a mural is the best way to attract tags to a blank wall.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:47 PM on December 11, 2020 [45 favorites]


“So I explained, but [Comte] said, ‘I never hired you and I own this damn building. I don’t believe a word of your f*ckin’ lies,’ and he hung up on me.”

“It wasn’t a mural. It was graffiti,” Comte told the paper.

Nevertheless, residents of the city of just over 100,000 are angry at him for painting it over. “Now I’m the evil Grinch and getting hate mail,” he said. The site itself, meanwhile, has become a memorial of sorts, according to a photo posted on Twitter, with mural-loving members of the public leaving behind teddy bears, flowers, and candles.


Look, I’m fighting in the war on Christmas as hard as the next guy, but damn do I not want Comte in the foxhole next to mine.
posted by hototogisu at 8:04 PM on December 11, 2020 [16 favorites]


Печеньковый монстр!


I come from, putting up a mural is the best way to
posted by ricochet biscuit

Эпонистерический!

рикошет печенье..C is for печенье
posted by clavdivs at 8:05 PM on December 11, 2020 [9 favorites]


In case anyone is interested, peace land cookies is a variation of the Bolshevik slogan “peace, land, and bread.” Wikipedia article.

Is it surprise really that Cookie Monster is a Communist?
posted by mundo at 8:33 PM on December 11, 2020 [9 favorites]


Is it surprise really that Cookie Monster is a Communist?

Yeah. I would have totally thought he was a libertarian.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:34 PM on December 11, 2020 [7 favorites]


I wish I had enough money to hire an artist to paint a mural on some asshole's building
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:34 PM on December 11, 2020 [50 favorites]


Cookie think bucket of white paint is delicious glass of milk for dunking cookies.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:47 PM on December 11, 2020 [13 favorites]


Я отвергаю все обвинения.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:47 PM on December 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


C is for Communism

but communism is a Sometimes Ideology
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:00 PM on December 11, 2020 [19 favorites]


In case anyone is interested, peace land cookies is a variation of the Bolshevik slogan “peace, land, and bread.”

The lead article also makes the connection to the Sots Art movement.
According to Christine Rank, head of collections at the Wende Museum in California, which preserves artifacts of the Cold War, the text is a reference to the Bolshevik slogan “Peace, Land, and Bread” and the design has “definitive Soviet flair,” with humor that recalls the Sots Art movement of the 1970s.
posted by zamboni at 9:25 PM on December 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


I really love the storytelling at work here where at the beginning you’re wondering who on Earth would spend thousands of dollars to pull this prank and then after exactly two quotes from Real Nate you realize the answer is literally anyone who knows him and can afford it.
posted by Ryvar at 9:50 PM on December 11, 2020 [81 favorites]


I know MetaFilter is pretty “Communism is actually good” these days, but for some people this would be incredibly offensive. I’m Lithuanian-American, and the reason for the “American” part is that the people who did the original posters with that slogan raped and murdered their way through my great-grandfather’s village outside Vilnius.

For me, this is the equivalent of someone painting “Cookies make one free” in German on a building owned by someone with family that died in Auschwitz.
posted by sideshow at 11:17 PM on December 11, 2020 [44 favorites]


...in German on a building owned by someone with family that died in Auschwitz.

But to me Comte sounds like it's of French origin? I get that anything that evokes the style of Communist propaganda would be hard to look at for a fairly large group of people, but what you are describing is definitely an unacceptable attack whereas this reads as a possibly narrowly problematic work of parody.

I mean it still does give an alternative to the knee-jerk reaction of Comte is just a jerk who is prone to over-reaction though.
posted by cirhosis at 12:10 AM on December 12, 2020 [10 favorites]


Moreover, the article suggests that there's quite a bit of borrowing from Soviet propaganda art nearby? (I haven't been to Peoria and it may be false)
The composition recalls the drama and bombast of Soviet-style propaganda art, which other street artists often allude to.
Comte also probably should have mentioned earlier if he had reasons to be offended by this beyond "I am surprised and did not authorize this".
posted by batter_my_heart at 12:45 AM on December 12, 2020


I immediately suspected Брови Макги!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:30 AM on December 12, 2020


I suppose it’s better than when we made national news because our mayor basically SWATted someone who made fun of him on Twitter.
posted by obfuscation at 5:17 AM on December 12, 2020 [7 favorites]


Comte can only recognize the gift of a fun free mural if it is from the Comte region of France. Otherwise it is just cheese.
posted by srboisvert at 5:55 AM on December 12, 2020 [23 favorites]


Man, Artnet does not like you running any kind of ad blocker.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:55 AM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Man, Artnet does not like you running any kind of ad blocker.

ad blocker + noscript works great, though!
posted by trig at 6:26 AM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


"But to me Comte sounds like it's of French origin? . . . this reads as a possibly narrowly problematic work of parody."

To you. To most of us.

Note that a pro-communism message might also be really offensive to Cuban exiles with Hispanic last names, and it's not like there are only two countries with lot's of people harmed by communism or that people from countries harmed by communism can't have French-origin last names.

More importantly we don't get to decide what is offensive to others.
posted by oddman at 6:32 AM on December 12, 2020 [4 favorites]


When Ilived in Memphis they decided to paint over murals that some city councilman thought was "satanic." https://www.commercialappeal.com...2018/02/09/ memphis-begins-exorcising -satanic-midtown-murals -artists-dismay/323899002/
posted by nestor_makhno at 6:39 AM on December 12, 2020 [4 favorites]


If Comte's family had been harmed by a communist regime, it seems highly likely that he would have taken the opportunity to mention it when he was being interviewed for the article. This feels like an Occam's razor situation... the most likely scenario is that he's just kind of dick. It's probably just too silly or absurd for his taste. Additionally, the art isn't seriously engaging with Communist propaganda, it's satirizing/subverting it. Taking art and subbing in the Cookie Monster for the Great Fearless Leader is subversive. You'd have gone to jail for putting this mural up in a Communist country.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:47 AM on December 12, 2020 [23 favorites]


I don't think anyone has argued that Comte is someone harmed in this way, merely that it's not a simple one-sided issue and that, maybe, just maybe, we should consider that there are other reasonable responses to people in Comte's situation besides "Christ, what an asshole."

For, example, might one observe that not everyone is happy to air out their personal or family trauma? Maybe some people don't want to have to justify their outrage at having their own property defaced? Maybe, just maybe, we don't really know what's going on in every person's head and how they see things is different from how we see things, you know? Proclaiming them to by humorless jerks is not the most empathetic response (even if they are humorless jerks).
posted by oddman at 7:03 AM on December 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


I would like to ask that if you post something in Russian, please be kind enough to also post the translation.
posted by mephron at 7:08 AM on December 12, 2020 [7 favorites]


When it comes to art, I'm not a fan of vicarious and/or hypothetical offense. On the other hand, the bar is certainly lower if art is 'inflicted' on people without their consent, which would be the case for a mural.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 7:19 AM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


What better way to build a brand for mural art than by painting one on a very visible wall, claiming one was paid to do it, and acting querulous when the building owner gets cranked off. I don’t know if it’s all a fabrication or not but either way the big, big winner here is the artist.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:19 AM on December 12, 2020 [5 favorites]


I encourage the person that commissioned this piece to set their next target a little higher - Mar-a-Lago.
posted by Ber at 7:23 AM on December 12, 2020 [8 favorites]


I do hope that art mysteries become this decade's flash mobs
posted by rebent at 7:40 AM on December 12, 2020 [14 favorites]


I think murals remain powerful even today, in our jaded age. The proof is that people react so strongly when they see a mural, usually either with delight, or fear. Part of it is the context—not being surrounded by dozens of other weird images such as in a museum, an art book, or on deviantart—but rather, overlaying reality, so to speak. I paid an artist to paint a mural (an impressionistic image of a jazz quartet) on a building I owned. The next day a guy walked in just to complain to me that it was "lascivious."
posted by jabah at 7:52 AM on December 12, 2020 [9 favorites]


I'm troubled by the phrase "harmed by communism". I think there is a capital "C" missing from that, in that communism the concept has always been different than what "communist" governments actually have done? (Many more of us, and many millions of dead across the world, have been harmed by capitalism, and yet we're fine celebrating that every day in our built, printed and broadcast environment. Anyway.)

I like the mural...but trying to decide how I would react if I found a mural painted on a building I owned, assuming I was in the group of folks who own commercial buildings. This one would be fun, but one celebrating Rush Limbaugh or anti-immigrant or whatever would obviously be awful. I think it's probably best to stick to painting your own stuff...though, again, that brings up exactly how much due diligence is, er, due to the artist. Usually meeting someone at a property they say they own, using the name of the owner, who is handing out handfuls of cash would be enough, I'd think?
posted by maxwelton at 8:41 AM on December 12, 2020 [6 favorites]


Doesn't the "cookie" substitution, and the larger than life presence of the cookie monster - well known product of an American domestically produced show - intrinsically a parody of the Soviet propaganda, not a repetition of it?
posted by hank_14 at 8:46 AM on December 12, 2020 [9 favorites]


This one would be fun, but one celebrating Rush Limbaugh or anti-immigrant or whatever would obviously be awful.

Ever since Peoria lost its Union labor base, I’m very worried this will be a theme of the replacement mural.
posted by Buy Sockpuppet Bonds! at 8:47 AM on December 12, 2020


I don't think anyone has argued that Comte is someone harmed in this way

i was responding to sideshow doing pretty much exactly that so...

I wasn't suggesting that we get to decide who can be offended by something or personally affected by it. But I do object to trying to search for someone who might possibly be offended by a piece of art. I do object to hysterically taking a piece of satire and suggesting that you know it might really be a hate crime.

I am all for taking the time to think about the fact that there are real people involved in these stories and that they may have some real motivations beyond the lolz that are being implied. I said as much already.
posted by cirhosis at 8:48 AM on December 12, 2020 [6 favorites]


It's reasonable to disagree, but this sure feels more like Sots Art than Soviet art to me.

If I lived in Peoria, I'd be sorely tempted to install a "One Nation Under Cookie" Uncle Sam themed mural next weekend. Then a "God Save the Cookie" John Bull mural.
posted by eotvos at 8:54 AM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


I just hate murals.
posted by wreckingball at 9:00 AM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


The Cookie Monster mural may have just been a means to the final goal: a nice, fresh white-washed wall with "Fuck Real Nate" scrawled across it.
posted by riverlife at 9:09 AM on December 12, 2020 [10 favorites]


The long game of Norton Dodge at work.
posted by Glomar response at 9:11 AM on December 12, 2020


What's the going rate for a mural these days?
posted by JDHarper at 9:45 AM on December 12, 2020


$20 SAIT
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:06 AM on December 12, 2020 [10 favorites]


The idea that a Cookie Monster parody of early Soviet style is blanket offensive (and therefore should not be posted just to be sure) is silly.

Capitalism and capitalist states have killed far more folks than Communist states, but I don't see anyone saying that American Flag murals, Uncle Sam murals, or US military murals are blanket banned (I mean, I wish, but I have to accept that they will be seen by those who have lost family members to a capitalist state. Hugo Boss was founded and named after a goddamned Nazi and I still see Hugo Boss ads littering the subway platforms, shoving a fucking fascist's company into my field of vision without my consent.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 10:29 AM on December 12, 2020 [10 favorites]


Is it surprise really that Cookie Monster is a Communist?

Which C in CCCP stands for cookie? Is it... is it all of them?
posted by mhoye at 10:52 AM on December 12, 2020 [8 favorites]


It's a celebration of the One True Cookie:

Chocolate Chip Cookie: Perfection
posted by maxwelton at 11:13 AM on December 12, 2020 [5 favorites]


Which C in CCCP stands for cookie?

All of them. And the P stands for "Please".
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:52 AM on December 12, 2020 [8 favorites]


For me, this is the equivalent of someone painting “Cookies make one free” in German on a building owned by someone with family that died in Auschwitz.

The world is awash in artistic references to the Third Reich, from Pink Floyd to Star Wars to literally every Mel Brooks movie. There are myriad ways of dealing with trauma through art and humour that are not propaganda or homage.

As someone whose family tree is lopsided due to the Russian Revolution, maybe I have as much right to find this amusing as anyone else does to find it offensive (maybe not -- that was a long time ago). But if we're honest with ourselves, we recognize it for what it is and and pathos can be as powerful an instrument of control as fear. We should be careful how and when we use either.
posted by klanawa at 11:52 AM on December 12, 2020 [7 favorites]


The building owner sounds like a jerk but personally if I owned the building I would be wary of Sesame Street’s lawyers coming after me or possibly offending people that fled violent regimes. Of course I would be nicer about it but I would probably repaint the mural with something that received Sesame Street’s blessing and without any political satire.

Big Bird may seem friendly but his lawyers on the other hand/wing ...
posted by mundo at 12:19 PM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


...Hawks. Big Bird doen play. Eagle, Hawk and Falcon: Attorneys at Law. I hear they have crows on retainer and parrots on commission.
posted by clavdivs at 6:23 PM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


And their senior litigator is the illustrious Parakeet Mason.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:29 PM on December 12, 2020 [5 favorites]


I just hate murals.
posted by wreckingball

posted by doctornemo at 6:31 PM on December 12, 2020 [11 favorites]


Eagle, Hawk and Falcon: Attorneys at Law

Parakeet Mason

These talented lawyers are probably how PBS gets its funding every year.
posted by mundo at 7:13 PM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Attorneys at Caw Law
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:26 PM on December 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


“Bork! Bork!”

“Sustained!”
posted by orange ball at 9:22 PM on December 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


A Flock of Seagulls is Counting Crows as the Thunderbirds and the Yardbirds evading the Eagles and them Crooked Vultures. Down at Jimmies Chicken Shack, The Department of Eagles are watching the Partridge Family for Black Crowes and the Atomic Rooster.
posted by clavdivs at 9:23 PM on December 12, 2020 [4 favorites]


Which C in CCCP stands for cookie?

The letter C is actually an S, as in Sovetskih. And P is actually R. /annoying pedant
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:58 PM on December 12, 2020 [3 favorites]


Are we sure this isn’t a viral ad for Pied Piper
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:03 AM on December 14, 2020


Best “terrorism” since Mikal Jakubal painted a crack on the O’Shaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park in 1987! (contemporary newspaper article, trailer for a documentary ...produced by a clothing brand, I guess? Cheapest to watch on Vudu of the streaming sites I looked at; Saw it when it was still on Netflix, it was good; Green Theory & Praxis Journal article “Pictorial Activism and the Rewilding of Rivers”)

Also, note that unlike Mussolini and Fascism and Hitler's Germany and Nazism, communism had a history stretching back ¾ of a century before the advent of the Soviet Union, and was many other things contemporaneously and since then: “Pain, Paix, Liberte ☭”—“Bread, Peace, Freedom ☭” on the flag of the colonial Algerian Communist Party, outlawed by colonial authorities for opposing French Imperial massacres and oppression.

For a teeny bit of context, Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the French National Front, Holocaust denier prosecuted and convicted under French law, and progenitor of a right-wing political dynasty there, was an enlistee in the Foreign Legion who won a medal for service in the post-WWII conflict in the colony of French Indochina in what became the American War in Vietnam and subsequently was a French intelligence officer during the Algerian War of Independence which ensued after the events related to the outlawing of the PCA and other anti-colonial organizations.

The French courts have also ruled that it is legal for journalists to publish accusations that Le Pen is a war criminal for his activities during that war, stories which include details as specific as a photo of the dagger he used to torture people with his name engraved on it. But because multiple overlapping laws were enacted at different levels of French government in the twentieth century guaranteeing amnesty for crimes committed during the Algerian War, Le Pen can never be prosecuted for war crimes.

Unconnected to Le Pen, but undoubtedly covered by the amnesties, is the case of Maurice Audin, a French-Tunisian-Algerian mathematician and member of the Algerian Communist Party who was tortured to death by the government. Audin's body was never found and although witness accounts of his torture were published in a book before the end of the war there was never an investigation of his murder but Macron was magnanimous enough to admit it happened a couple of years ago.
posted by XMLicious at 8:31 PM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]


UPDATE as of this morning: The building owner just repainted over it with white paint and DID NOT REMOVE THE MURAL and DID NOT PRIME, so the white paint has flaked off and the mural has re-emerged! (Pic courtesy of a friend in Peoria)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:23 PM on January 2, 2021 [15 favorites]


C is not for Coverage
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:21 PM on January 2, 2021 [2 favorites]


I think it's even better now. Looks like a relic from our glorious past, when every family had a cookie in its jar.
posted by maxwelton at 1:37 PM on January 2, 2021 [4 favorites]


A cookie can crumble, but the recipe lives on.
posted by mundo at 2:18 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]


1977 Soviet Anthem.ogg!
posted by XMLicious at 2:23 PM on January 2, 2021


(Wayback Machine archive of image)
posted by XMLicious at 2:32 PM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]


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