An Answer to a NoLA Fugee Article written by nom de plume John Paul Marat
by Michael “ReX” Dingler(Not a pen name)
Newly named Ubiquitous Urban Defacement Czar of New Orleans
“Article” can be found HERE
In
the spirit of Lord David promoting his Truth & Other Lies
(:-)>), I decided to share with y’all some truth and other lies from
my life. I have recently been verbally accosted by a rather pen-happy
admirer hiding under the pseudonym of John Paul Marat and I couldn’t
help but laugh out loud. As
many of y’all know, I don’t bother to answer criticism because it’s
rarely worthwhile to do so and the criticism is rarely well-founded.
Yet, on this rare occasion, I must.
As
I re-read the article I referenced (because you have to re-read it to
understand it), I laughed so hard that my drink came out my nose.
Naturally, I would have answered this in their comment section, but the
tightly controlled website, probably wary of criticism, didn’t allow it.
The
author, whom we shall call J.P. to make it easier to refer to him (or
perhaps her), went on quite a tangent with the end result being a
quote heavy and verbose lambasting of yours truly.
To J.P., ReX heartily salutes you! And here’s why:
You make no qualms about telling it how it is in the title alone: “Demon Dingler”. I like that kind of honesty. Well done!
You
have made a verb of my name “the Dinglerization of America”, which will
most likely become the name of my next art show. Kudos!
You
have given me yet another moniker that is too good to refuse:
“Ubiquitous Urban Defacement Czar”. I love it! We all had a good laugh
and am already preparing a new resume to reflect this description.
Super!
Other
such quotes that will go well in the promotional video (along with
passages from The Grey Ghost that I truly admire) are: “material expression of a collective downward spiral into total equality in art”; “an obvious misuse and misinterpretation of freedom of expression and the downgrading of art”; “an exercise of pretentious and vacuous narcissism”; “neither clever nor art”; and so on and so forth. I mean really…you can’t buy that kind of publicity! THANK YOU!
In
two sentences span, you allude to comparing me to George W. Bush, C.
Ray Nagin, Bill O’Reilly and Eminem. Priceless! I think I’m making a
commercial…I’ll have my people not call your people in true
politico-entertainment fashion. ;-)
However,
this is where my praise must end. My critique of the article, if it
can be called that, is that I see it as a tad verbose. To explain that
to the “simpletons” of which I must appeal to, verbose means wordy. As
an example, might I point out the following sentence?
“Our
coeval cultural inbreeding, instilled by subversive advertising and a
perverse ethics indoctrinated via ghastly cinematic abominations, leads
our stunted populace to identify the capitalist squeeze on our brains
and resources as an unquestionable progressive step towards mankind’s
apotheosis.”
What
does that mean exactly? Must have been written by someone with a
north-eastern education. Wait, my dumb Southern mind is going to try
and take a gander at this one. Perhaps it means that television and
media, tied in with its use to make money off those silly lemmings who
participate in it, aren’t going to grow into the enlightened such as
you. People, who let’s say, use a lot of ten dollar words and lose
their readers as a result?
Interesting
point, but the woes of our modern society making a worthless melting
pot in the collective American psyche has been explored thoroughly.
There was a legitimate start to your article and yet, you digressed so
far, you not only lost the reader, but you lost your point. Let me
tell you, you were writing about my favourite subject… ME …and even I
got bored.
What I will take offence at, is that in your description of graffiti writers your say “New Orleans’ expatriate bourgeoisie, comprised of white Yankees and even whiter outcasts from Jefferson Parish and Uptown, doodles Graffiti in an exercise of pretentious and vacuous narcissism.” That’s a very racially and geographically odd standpoint to take since it was reported to me that you are
white and originally from Providence, Rhode Island. Do you believe
that by living in New Orleans long enough you can criticize people from
your original birthplace? How very un-New Orleanian of you? It’s
almost like you were making fun of Metairie and Uptown kids because you
now conveniently live in the Bywater…oh wait, you were.
Despite your opinions about the “expatriate bourgeoisie”, I’ve got to say that aside from the invasion of hipsters, I’m glad to see any Yankee come down if their motives and hearts are pure in their love for New Orleans. That’s
why you came, isn’t it? Carpetbaggers and disaster profiteers suck ass
though. But now I am the one digressing. Unlike the critics who
naysay their arrival, I think the change in viewpoint in business as
usual (if the price is right and my freezer is stuffed full of cash)
will do our city good. I share Marine Corps’ General Shoup’s opinion
of critics that they “make no mistakes because they attempt nothing…and
lacks boldness and the spirit of adventure.”
I
am amazed most by your lack of research on my favourite subject. Quite
frankly, for someone who appears to posses the intelligence to properly
thrash me, I would have thought a little more homework would have been
in order. You have plenty of time on your hands these days and it’s
not like I’m hard to find, I am ubiquitous after all. For example (in
my best Andy Rooney voice), you “denounce graffiti committed by simpletons like…Michael Dingler.” Even the most minimal of research would have indicated that I am not a graffiti writer.
I do installation pieces which technically makes me a guerilla artist.
The simpleton part, however, I’ll give you as very accurate.
Furthermore,
you make a strange comparison to those who write “vapid, baffling
expressions of freedom on a public wall” to people who work on Bourbon
Street and then dress up in spikes and go to punk shows. I hope in
your assessment that you were taking some artistic liberties
or know of one particular person that fits this bill. There are some
who would probably take offence to that. Knowing me as well as you do,
I’m sure, then you know I do both of those things on a regular basis.
Didn’t I see you at One Eyed Jacks on Punk Night? I mean really, how
can you lead a social revolution if you don’t socialize?
Quite frankly, I feel your pain. It’s hard to have all these words and ideas and not know how to properly vent them. That is
why I avoid things like big words and stick to scribbling and doodles.
It’s tough for me being a “white outcast” from Metairie. I shamefully
admit, here in the public forum (sorry mom), that my parents had the
bad taste to move to Metairie before I was born…where they raised me in
obscurity until I became a full-fledged deviant. Much
like your papers to cross Canal Street for work and visiting friends
(on the other side), can I get new birth certificate that says Orleans
Parish since I’ve lived there about a decade now?
Ah me, what a ramble…
So let’s raise a glass to our friend J.P., whose identity remains masked. You had a fine point, but you lost it in the telling…even if you didn’t know what you were talking about. So, presumably, I’m going to the link to your DEMON DINGLER story here to give you perhaps what you wanted in the first place…more hits on your struggling website.
It’s against my better judgment, but it’s also because it’s good to
know someone has a voice and is trying to use it. Plus, despite what I
think of the “article”, I believe we help each other in the spirit of
community in our city. Perhaps infantile ankle-biting can keep the New
Orleans brand out there too…
In parting, let’s remember this is New Orleans and there is no anonymity or hiding behind names. The six degrees of separation
in other places like Providence is fairly non-existent here. You
should have lived here long enough to know that (it’s something we
learn as kids). Two phone calls in less than an hour confirmed
everything I needed to know and I even got plenty of back story. So,
now that all has been said and done, let’s get together for a beer and
laugh about this. You do drink beer, or is too terribly
common for you? Really, I’m a congenial guy and I’m known for my
generosity when it comes to drinking. I guarantee you, you’ll get
plenty of information about me to write a properly offensive article on my favorite subject. I promise to explain what it is I’m really doing…
And,
since you like quotes so much, allow me the use of Diego Rivera: “The
society of the future would be a mass society. And this fact presented
wholly new problems. The proletariat had no taste; or, rather, its
taste had been nurtured on the worst esthetic food, the very scraps and
crumbs which had fallen from the tables of the bourgeoisie.
A
new kind of art would therefore be needed, one which appealed not to
the viewers’ sense of form and color directly, but through exciting
subject matter. The new art, also, would not be a museum or gallery art
but an art the people would have access to in places they frequented in
their daily life-post offices, schools, theaters, railroad stations,
public buildings. And so, logically, albeit theoretically, I arrived at
mural painting”
p.s. You keep them reading by having something fun to read