Doing what I can.
September 19, 2001 8:44 AM   Subscribe

Doing what I can. Cities across the nation are sold out of United States flags. This is my meager attempt to give anyone interested an American Flag in their cubicle. Distribute freely.
posted by ooklah (19 comments total)
 
I live in "The city of Flags" and cant find one. i was gonna go down to V.F.W. and roll some vet for his stars and stripes but my P.O. talked me out of it.
posted by newnameintown at 8:47 AM on September 19, 2001


Flags are not to be had in Tucson. Somebody better get a supply in quick, because I'm rapidly approaching the point where I'm not going to want to fly one any more. (Perhaps the Revolutionary War "Don't Tread on Me" flag might be a popular choice right now?)
posted by jdbanks at 9:01 AM on September 19, 2001


You ROCK! Thanks for the great pics.
posted by ColdChef at 9:15 AM on September 19, 2001


stop buying flags and start buying airline tickets and some stocks. ...or, buy flags too.
posted by tomplus2 at 9:26 AM on September 19, 2001


Here's a starkly beautiful image from Noah Grey (Thanks to Chuck for linking to this one).
posted by maudlin at 9:30 AM on September 19, 2001


More detailed flag info found here
posted by ooklah at 9:33 AM on September 19, 2001


Wow, maudlin!
It made every single hair on the back of my head stand up and salute. And I'm not even American!
Thanks maudlin, Noah Grey and Chuck.
Hey, next time include a WARNING to the effect that this magnificent photograph, so well framed by its website, may shock you into silence and hard-core introspection.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:36 AM on September 19, 2001


This image came out the day after. I KNOW that a crying Statue of Liberty became a cliche with all the editorial cartoons, but this one is really, really fantastic. Plus, they made desktop sizes. This is what I have on my desktop. (though if Noah Grey does a desktop size of his image, I may switch to that)
posted by ColdChef at 9:47 AM on September 19, 2001


Noah Grey: do as ColdChef and all of us say and please produce a desktop size of your photograph. Consider it a duty. We need it now.
MeFi members: please go to his website, linked under his name by maudlin, to comment and encourage Noah(There are already similar requests there).
Meanwhile, ColdChef's image is up on mine. The fact that it's a cliché only makes it more moving. Who wants to be creative and original at a time like this? It seems wrong.

Crying is crying.
But Noah Grey's photograph cries out really loud. As is needed right now.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:20 AM on September 19, 2001




Miguel, if you're using win98 or win2k, you can just stretch any image to cover the entire desktop background, no need to urge noah to produce a larger image.
posted by mathowie at 11:33 AM on September 19, 2001


Done and spread to all my friends.
Thanks Matt. Is nothing too small to catch your benevolent attention?
You fully deserve every single drop of praise you get.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:05 PM on September 19, 2001


*sigh*. Forgive me in advance for repeating what I said on my site, but... I don't want this done with my photo. I do sincerely appreciate the thought behind this, and I know you (and mathowie) didn't mean any harm - but it wasn't meant as a patriotic cheer, but rather an intensely personal expression of grief. I knew someone who was killed in the WTC attack, okay? And I know I can't stop you, but I just don't want my sorrow used as decoration for a desktop. Please.

I'm sorry.
posted by Noah at 12:25 PM on September 19, 2001


I got this link from google's news page, and put one of those ribbons on my website (as I have nothing meaningful to put there anyway ;).
posted by slater at 12:37 PM on September 19, 2001


Undone, Noah.
(I have forwarded your post to my friends and all but one - out to dinner - has removed your photograph).

Please don't worry. It looked stretched anyway - not at all the same. A lot of MeFi members didn't have the opportunity of reading your justification for not enlarging it.

But fair is fair, Noah, and IMHO you should understand six big things:

a)No one here understood your photograph as a patriotic cheer; but as an icon of sorrow
b)No one thought of it as "decoration".(This was slightly insulting, by the way)
c)You are not the only one to have lost someone in the WTC attack. If someone takes comfort from your beautiful image, you should not deny them that small consolation. Remember lives are lives and photos are only photos.
d)You can stop us. All you have to do is ask. But next time you want to keep something to yourself do not make it public. Keep it private.
e)If all artists thought like you - i.e., not wanting their expressions to be made public - there would be nothing to read or see. We would be deprived of art.

And, finally:

f)But, of course, deep down, we understand you perfectly and thank you with our eyes and hearts.

Thank you.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:59 PM on September 19, 2001


Noah, I'm very sorry that my link led to this. I just wanted others to see your sharp, pure vision of grief. And please let me offer my heartfelt sympathies for the loss of your friend.
posted by maudlin at 12:59 PM on September 19, 2001


a) I apologise if I came across as being presumptive in that, perhaps an overly defensive remark on my part. But I rarely know exactly what most people who see my photos feel about them, any more than they know exactly what feeling I put into them.
b) I sincerely didn't mean it to be insulting. I hope you didn't mean your next statement to be insulting, either.
c) Did I say I was the only one who lost someone? My photos aren't "only photos" to *me* any more than most other artists, musicians, etc consider their works as "only paintings" or "only songs". But are you honestly trying to tell me that because I don't want it used as a desktop I'm therefore trying to compare it to, or even put it above, the loss of those lives? "Remember lives are lives and photos are only photos" - my god. That you could even extrapolate the need to say *that* to me at all out of *this*... I can't begin to say how much that hurts.
d) And so I've asked. There are varying degrees of public and private. My site is public, yes, but it's also self-contained under my personal purview. I share the photos I share to be seen and appreciated in that particular setting by anyone who cares to take the time to see and appreciate them there, and I make desktops out of whichever photos I'm comfortable, for whatever reason, to have used for that purpose. As the guy who makes the photos, I have the right to delineate: which ones I don't mind being used that way; which ones I only want to share and be viewed on my own site; and which ones I'll never share at all - and I have the right to whatever reasons behind them I choose (and to what degree, if any, I express those reasons). The design of Metafilter may be "public" but that doesn't necessarily mean Matt wants other sites to use his design; it's public to see, but not public to use.
e) See above. If my request is "depriving the world of art", then so is every other artist, writer, musician, etc who doesn't want their work to appear in any book or CD but their own.
f) Thank you (and maudlin).

Again - I do, yes, understand your good intentions, and I hope you can accept that I did not and do not have any bad intentions towards you. I have a passionately intense dislike for being in the middle of a conflict (which is why I never post here anymore; if I agree with someone then I can only be repeating them, and if I disagree, well, I'm frankly far too emotionally vulnerable to withstand being the target of the level it rises to here sometimes - and I don't mean that directed at you, it's just a general explanation of why I stopped posting here), and there's scarcely anything I'd *less* rather have a conflict over than this. I don't want to hurt you or anyone in any way, so I hope you can just accept my blanket apology, because I have to admit I'm just not able to deal with this.
posted by Noah at 1:51 PM on September 19, 2001


Noah:
I'm so sorry. I said "lives were lives and photos were just photos" precisely because of your loss and your dignity. I thought this was your message.

I was just as touched by your justification and eloquence. Please accept my sincere apologies for any unintended brutality on my part and my renewed thanks for your nobility, in art as well as in life.

I feel so guilty of not being able to express myself as well as I would wish - all I was saying was that we were all with you.

We are.

(A big hug)

Miguel
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:07 PM on September 19, 2001




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