June 19, 2003
AGONY
In 1995, director Spike Jonze shot a video for the band Wax's
song "California" that was simply slow motion film of a man on fire
jogging down a city sidewalk. Those images are mirrored horribly on
the front page of today's New York Sun. The Sun, which
has taken to distinguishing itself with large, crisp, full-color, page
one photos, today has a picture of an Iranian dissident running, while
he is almost completely engulfed in orange and yellow flames. The fire
has yet to consume his face though, so his expression of anguish is
perfectly clear. This is not the passive self-immolation of a Buddhist
monk in Diem's 1960's Vietnam. It's a horrifying form of protest
against France's crackdown on an Iranian opposition group. I wish it
were available online, but The Sun is only available on the
Internet via subscription. Look for it at newsstands though.
UPDATE: Here's a
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030618/168/4fkiy.
html&e=2&ncid=996">link to an online version of the photo discussed
above, although this version is much darker than the one that appears
on the front page of The New York Sun. Much of the detail
that's in the paper's picture doesn't appear online. Maybe my monitor
just stinks.
Posted by Lexiphane at June 19, 2003 9:17 AM
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