The medium is the message so Obey!

Hint: he's half Polish.

Second hint: he became famous, and lived, in Montreal though he is originally from Grenoble, France.

The answer is André René Roussimoff though he is better known as André the Giant.

the Obey Giant

  

Born to Jewish parents of Polish and Bulgarian ancestry in 1946, André the Giant suffered from acromegaly, better known as gigantism. Due to his incredible size, and strength, AG became a wrestler at the age of 17 but only achieved worldwide fame in the early seventies, when he moved to Montreal and began wrestling at the Forum. 

The Obey Giant, a huge skater community symbol, was created in 1989 by Shepard Fairey as a street art and viral marketing campaign. It eventually became known as the Obey Giant though it was first called André the Giant has a Posse.

  
So how, exactly, does a gigantic wrestler became a skateboarding symbol?

And how many skateboarders even know that the face on their shirt, or hat, actually belongs to André René Roussimoff?

I'm guessing very few!    

Which got me thinking... how does a symbol become a symbol when it loses its meaning or message?

Which then got me thinking about this.

 
Marshall McLuhan.

The term "the medium is the message," originally coined by MM (a Canadian "philosopher" widely regarded as the father of communications and media studies) in 1964, refers to the fact that in the age of communications the medium influences the message, sometimes even overriding it, becoming the message in itself or altering how it is perceived.

Other McLuhanisms include "the future of the book is the blurb," "all advertising advertises advertising," and "money is the poor man's credit card."

Well said Mister McLuhan.

I remember asking an acquaintance of mine, many moons ago, what made her buy the shirt she was wearing. It featured the likeness of a well-known activist. She answered that she agreed with his principles. Gandhi's I mean.

Except the guy on her shirt was Che Guevara.

The medium is the message, y'all.

While there is literally a world of difference between the Indian leader of nationalism and the Argentinian Marxist revolutionary - one believed in peace the other in radical guerrilla tactics - both have become ubiquitous commercial successes for representing... something. 

But what exactly?

The medium is the message.

Here are a few pics I took this week while ruminating on McLuhan's most famous McLuhanism...

 

People don't change

Or do they?

Lately, I've been thinking about the old adage that pretty much affirms that we are all stuck in our own $%#@ and simply can't change.

I don't buy it. 

Not for one second.

While we may not be able to completely transform deeply ingrained aspects of our person, or personality, I think life is a lesson (or series of lessons) that can teach us a thing or two about ourselves and compel us to improve - for the better.

I think this is what Oprah would call an "Aha moment!"

What first got me thinking about this was a a dream I had about Nicole Richie (yes, you heard me right, I dream about celebrities - but only the ones I consider close friends). 

Ten years ago, she was pretty much a train wreck. 

mug shots

Nowadays, she's sober, married, has two kids, a clothing line, jewellery line, an online series, etc. (I think you get the point I'm trying to make.)  

And I absolutely adore her.

pageant shot

There's a scene in the movie Great Expectations, with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, where Goop's character Estella states, point blank, "We are who were are, people don't change."

Bull$%#@

Just look at John R. "Johnny" Cash.

After watching Walk the Line last night, I came to the realization that love can sometimes be a huge catalyst for change. Years of druggin' and boozin' took their toll on Johnny Cash but, in the end, love took an even bigger toll.

After helping him get sober, June Carter spent 35 years with the man in black. They had a child together and when she died in 2003, he pretty much lost the will to live... and died four months later - of a broken heart.

So the next time somebody tells you people don't, or can't, change just think of Nicole Richie and Johnny Cash and remember that "lies only exist if we believe in them."

    

Let them eat cake!

Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, never actually pronounced the words she is most famous for (isn't it ironic - don't you think?).

Do you know what else she never did? 

Lend her left breast to glass makers to model the famous Marie Antoinette champagne coupe after.

Let me explain.

Due to my extreme nostalgia and love of most everything vintage, I started collecting champagne coupes about one year ago.

The main difference between a champagne coupe and a champagne flute is size. A coupe is a small, saucer-shaped drinking vessel (!) while a flute is a long, thin, delicate 'lil thing.

Behold...

coupes

flutes

Let's hope flutes weren't modelled after anyone's breasts!!!

Legend has it that M.A. lent her left breast (the bigger one or the smaller one? things that make you go hmmm) to glass makers to mold champagne coupes after that would be used by her courtesans to toast to her health but, in reality, coupes were actually invented in 1663 way before Marie Antoinette was drinking champagne.

The reason they made them so small and wide is because champagne wasn't as bubbly then as it is now. Despite this fact, I much prefer drinking my fizzy out of coupes because I love the way they feel in my hand... and I like pretending I'm partying chez Jay Gatsby's when I indulge in bubbly.   

Speaking of Marie Antoinette... I absolutely loved Sofia Coppola's film with the same name and have wonderful memories of watching it with the beau chez nous many moons ago.

But I was surprised by this scene... can you guess why?

 

Hint: Think Chucks.