March of The Penguins

So, remember a few days ago, when that caption writer over at the Globe & Mail decided to take a whole bunch of celebrity shots and scrawl some good-old fashioned class resentment all over them? My particular favorite was the George Clooney shot: “Left-leaning actor/director George Clooney attends  the premiere of The Ides of March in a swank and exclusive club in Manhattan last week. He said last week he would pay more attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement were he not so busy attending events like this. Seriously. That’s what he said.”

I thought this totally rocked. To the extent that ANY powerful individual gets involved with this, be it a politician or a celebrity, it’s important to gauge their commitment to the ideals, and to resist exploitation of such. Hell, that goes for anybody, period.

So even though I’m giving publicity where it’s really not deserved, I still feel the need to call this out.

There’s this band, Penguin Prison. I heard this track of theirs a few months ago on Hype Machine called “Don’t Fuck With My Money.” Typical ’80s-retro synth pop. It wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t that good, either. It sounded like some immature, attitudinal grab for attention. Any rate, it was hardly any sort of call to action.

Well, it turns out that I was WRONG! Because it turns out that Penguin Prison is now part of #ows. And their publicist just sent out an email blast detailing where they’re gonna be and when they’re gonna perform and EVERYONE has to be in Times Square at such-and-such an hour because they’re shooting a video with ALL of us in the backdrop because we need to send out the message loud and clear: “DON’T FUCK WITH MY MONEY!”

Seriously. That’s what she said.

Well, fuck Penguin Prison and fuck them using this as a means to market their hipster bubblegum. This makes them no better than the DCCC, a primary beneficiary of Wall Street, and that petition they sent out to their Democrats. If they really want activist cred for their activity, let them EARN it. And if they have worked behind the scenes in any way I’m not aware of, it certainly didn’t buy them the right to do this.

There will be other places to hear this track, of course. Just not here.

Tagged as: Don't Fuck With My Money, electronic, exploitation, Hijack, hipster, Hype Machine, marketing, occupy wall street, Penguin Prison, politics