BCD: barrels, courts, disasters.

I find the term ‘barrel’ as in ‘barrel of oil’ to be unique in that it strikes me as an unrefined and crude (sorry, fuck puns) word and yet it is used heavily in news publications and broadcasts to describe an aspect of the economy. It’s a word I would more closely associate with being spoken by large working men with dirty hands “OK, we’ve got 100 barrels of crude and the semi is waitin’. Let’s load ’em up, fellas.” And yet a columnist for The New York Times or The Guardian etc., who is clean and comfortable in an office environment, will use ‘barrel’ in an article to be read by an affluent readership which simultaneously delights in a breakfast of Belgian waffles.

Courtroom sketches in the newspaper. Here is something that has persevered through time. It’s fascinating that the strict ban on photography and video recording in courts does not attenuate, and may even contribute to, the desire to know what is going on behind closed doors. In this technology saturated age I find the use of courtroom illustrations in publications sort of romantic, a piece of history that is as alive as ever. Possibly the most common example of the use of art for something other than art’s sake.

How unfortunate for a natural disaster to strike at a time when the affected government had been poised to unleash onto their citizens their next propaganda story. I’m sure it annoys other governments as well, who, if the disaster is large enough, must halt their own propaganda to dutifully allow the press to report on the tragedy.