Che Day (Let's dishonor his memory by paying respects to the people who deserve to replace him...)

The American Prowler ^ | 6/15/2005 | Andrew Cline

[EdHallick]

Speaking of the Che t-shirt, I met the guy responsible for that cliched picture once in London about 30 years ago. I forget his name, but met him through a friend who knew him. At the time I had no idea who Che was, he had an art studio with a huge picture of that Che mug framed. He has it copyrighted and lives in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in London. He gets money everytime someone uses that image, and this stupid picture shows up everywhere. Pretty ironic, the ultimate capitalist is born out from a guy who helped put people under communism.

[EdHallick]

Holy smoke, I just did a search on him to see if I could find him, and look what I found...It looks like he got his azz sued off. He didn`t take the picture. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/09/16/cheguevaraphoto.ap/

[cryptical]

Santana's lame apology to the Miami residents who fled the terror state Guevara helped create illustrates the contortions Guevara's fans have to undergo to defend their idolization. "[The shirt] was worn to honor the soulful young man portrayed in The Motorcycle Diaries and had a profound political epiphany during a journey across South America," Santana said in a statement. "It was not meant to be an endorsement about a man who helped to establish the Castro dictatorship in Cuba."

Carlos rocks, but c'mon... Imagine a slightly different shirt: "The shirt was worn to honor the soulful young man who painted postcards in Austria, it was not meant to be an endorsement about a man who killed millions..."

[XR7]

[CIBvet]

I just wore my Che T-shirt yesterday .... mine shows him with Mickey Mouse ears.

Since Che's become such a Po(o)P Culture hero around the mindless college and Liberal crowd, I enjoy wearing my shirt into as many bureaucrat & Yuppie coffee hangouts as possible.

It never fails to snap a few heads around. I just hang in the weeds for an offhand comment.

[durasell]

That would be Gerard Malanga.

[durasell]

By the way, it's not copyrighted. It was originally a rip off of the Warhol, but then Warhol claimed it as his own, etc. etc. big art world mess.

That's one reason why it spread. No coyright, anyone can make them. The same deal with the "smiley" face that isn't copyrighted.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I would like this opportunity to again compliment the Bolivian Army on the great job they did wasting that piece of scum.

[EdHallick]

I just looked him up, that wasn`t the guy I met. I don`t know, I remember very clearly meeting this guy who bragged about being the guy who made and owned the Che pic, and he got royalties. That was about 1975, maybe he did something else with it? Pretty funny you compare the smiley face to it, lol! It pretty much describes the Che pic, all these people wear it or get tattoos solely because of the way it looks rather than knowing who the guy was, it`s "hip" to get a Che man! Yeah! Like that idiot Madonna who tried to look like him for her album. I don`t know what the obsession is with that pic, it`s such a damn cliche now like that smilely pic.

[rlmorel]

My 13 year old nephew was wearing one. I asked hm if he knew whose face that was on his shirt. He said no, so I told him. Then I asked if he knew what this guy was, what he did for a living, and he said no. So I explained to him that the guy was basically a murderer for Castro whose job at one time was to go out, find people that Castro wanted dead, and have them killed.

Didn't seem to faze my nephew much. I think he still thought the shirt was cool.

[durasell]

There are these pieces of graphic art that aren't copyrighted that somehow take on unintended meanings in society. The Smiley face was a promotion for an insurance company -- the guy who designed it just died a couple of years ago.

Another one is the silhouette of the reclining woman that you see on mudflaps and decals from New York to Arkansas and Florida to Seattle.Her "official name" is Slick Chick.
She grew out of WWII nose art from planes.

Che falls into that category. No copyright, easy to produce and vague meaning that has all but been lost.

[FreedomPoster]

Here's the t-shirt I sometimes wear, as a statement in response to those who wear the idiot Che shirts:

[Criminal Number 18F]

Yeah. What the guitarist seems to miss is that the "soulful young man" and the guy who tried to put the Congo and Bolivia under the same kind of dictatorship he helped build in Cuba (where for a time he was the head of the execution squads in the stadium), is the same guy.

Fortunately, I don't look to musicians, a remarkably unworldly lot, for political wisdom. I can be a John Lennon fan without thinking "Gee, I wish Lennon's political ideas came to pass." Politically, Lennon, like Santana, like most musicians, was a bozo.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[FreedomPoster]

History seems to have proven you very wrong. Take a look at the life of the average Chilean, versus the average Cuban.

[sodiumodium]

Yes, and I'm sure the embargo against cuba has nothing to do with that either. It forced them to completely sell out to the soviets bolshevik communism which of course always fails. Chile has gotten its act together only recently, and has the benefits of a more liberal market and good trade agreements (not even going to talk about pinochet's reign)

---

History seems to have proven you very wrong. Take a look at the life of the average Chilean, versus the average Cuban.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

They also have one in a similar style with Corey Feldman. I bet either one POs the left. Good.

[SlowBoat407]

I did this to remind people of Hillary's true nature:

[FreedomPoster]

Yes, the great economic success of other Communist countries supports your argument.