Lovely one-of-a-kind terracotta planter of Rick Perry’s head up for auction on eBay. Jeff Koons must be kicking himself that he didn’t think of this first. Genius!
Rick Perry has a hole in his head. Lots of them, in fact. For sale is a 6’ terra cotta flower planter in an extraordinary likeness of Rick’s head. The outline of his hair is surprisingly accurate, with holes throughout to grow lush grass, flowing ivy or flowering plants. Prayer plants might be appropriate.
On Monday, the BBC’s supposed “financial expert,” Alessio Rastani, became the human face of the financial crisis within the space of a single day, when the video of him telling astonished newscasters that he goes to bed every night “dreaming of another recession” because for him, that’s “an opportunity,” went viral in a big way. The following morning, there was speculation that Rastani’s “candid” remarks were all part of an elaborate hoax played on the BBC by the Yes Men, who denied it.
Now, Rastani admits that he is, fact, not much of a trader, he’s more of an, um, in his own words, an “attention seeker.”
“They approached me,” he told The Telegraph. “I’m an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking.”
So he’s more of a talker than a trader. A man who doesn’t own the house he lives in, but can sum up the financial crisis in just three minutes – a knack that escapes many financial commentators.
“I agreed to go on because I’m attention seeker,” he said on Tuesday. “But I meant every word I said.”
Good to know he’s a man of his word! Not that this new revelation about his resume in any way contradicts what Mr. Rastani actually said on BBC News about how Goldman Sachs runs the world and all that, but we thought you might like to know…
Is a blunt truth told by a liar—even when he’s more or less caught in the act—invalidated in any way? I don’t think so, the truth is the truth, even if, in this case, the messenger is far less than perfect. Everyone, even professional traders, knows what he said accurately describes the way rapacious final stages of capitalism really works. WHAT he said no one seems to hava a problem with!
Hoaxer, liar, blagger, chancer or merely an “attention seeker, no matter how you slice it, I’m just glad that someone said this out loud... It’s worth watching this clip one more time before you completely forgot about Alessio Rastani’s existence…
While rummaging around on the Internet trying to find a George Carlin action figure (which I did find, BTW), I stumbled across this bizarre image of a cut-out George Carlin waving at a hairy voodoo doll and thought I’d share. You’re welcome!
Good lord, if this is true, it’s absolutely fucking hysterical, but I have my doubts: Reuters, CNBC, Forbes, the Washington Post and the Guardian have all reported inconclusive speculation in the last few hours that the “candid” (some might say “sociopath”) Wall Street trader, Alessio Rastani, who told BBC News: “I dream of another recession,” might be member of the genius satirical activists, The Yes Men!
Rastani’s statement, “The governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world,” has caused his shocking BBC News appearance to become a viral video sensation in the past 24 hours. An BBC internal investigation has concluded that Rastani is who he says he is, a real trader, but not everyone is buying it:
FORBES: Have you heard of the Yes Men?
AR: Heard of it before? Not quite sure why they’re calling me that. I have no idea where that came from.
AR: What? A Dow Chemical spokesman? Have you seen this video? That can’t be right. I’ve never spoken to Dow Chemical before in my life. Maybe it’s a fake. Are you sure about this? Honestly, listen, I’ve no idea where that came from. That interview yesterday was one of the first ones I did live.
I don’t know why they think it’s a hoax. No, I am a trader absolutely. I have trader friends who could back that up. One of my mentors is a bestselling author and trader. Everyone knows me.
Here’s the problem: The speculation seems to be that Alessio Rastani is, in fact, the Yes Men’s Andy Bichlbaum. I know Andy personally—Disinformation published the Yes Men book—so unless Andy has had extensive plastic surgery or gotten into a time machine since I’ve last seen him, I can assure that he’s not Alessio Rastani. Rastani also has a blog, several YouTube videos about trading, he’s on Twitter and has been for two years, etc. IF this is a hoax, it’s either one concocted with a very, very long fuse, or else the Yes Men hired a real stock broker to say the same nihilistic, “fuck the little guy” things that brokers say amongst themselves all the time,
I’ll repeat that: I’m not saying that the Yes Men didn’t hire this guy to say what he said on BBC News—I have no knowledge of this—but the speculation that he’s Andy Bichlbaum is absolutely NOT true.
Still, the fact that this is being speculated about as a Yes Men media prank is simply delicious! I’m sure they’ll keep quiet about this as long as possible. Why not milk it, especially if it’s a freebie, you know? Not sure if I want it to be a hoax or not. Probably not, which means I’m rooting for Rastani to actually be the sociopathic stock broker he represented himself as on the BBC News channel…
Rather grateful to ace musician Fleabag Jones (aka Woody Mcmilan) for reminding me how well this mash-up between the Sex Pistols and Madonna works.
Called “Ray of Gob” (“Ray of Light” / “Pretty Vacant” / “God Save The Queen”), it was created by Mark Vidier, the Watford based DJ who has produced a whole jukebox of bootleg mash-ups via his Go home Productions.
“Ray of Gob” is rather special as it was the one which “broke the camel’s back” and allowed Mark to give up the day-job in February 2003. Still sounds as good today.
