Republican Black Velvet
Bush has the Floor
Originally uploaded by Indignico.
I found these great photos submitted to the Flickr group I created for campaign-related photos. So many choices! Ashcroft, Bush, Cheney, Zell, Bush and Elvis! Which would you choose? Hard to imagine much of a market for these in Tijuana.
And how about some Democrats? Maybe ours would be on Blue Velvet 🙂
<p>I’m glad you like the velvets. It’s a project that feels like a big cookie in a little cookie jar, with me the dumb-ass cookie-crazed raccoon who can’t get the cookie out through the narrow opening in the jar… but who refuses to let go. . . since 1996. A raccoon with a vision. A vision of one day, with perserverance and hunger for a better tommorrow, outlasting that jar and eating that cookie, by god.</p><p>Originally the whole thing started out as an idea for a movie shot w/ a verite guerilla-cam style, but despite the look, not a doumentary — just a regular-old narrative that just happened to be set in the real world, with the ’96 Republican Convention as the opening backdrop, the Republican conventioneers as my extras, Mtv & CNN et al as my B-Cameras, and 2 Hollywood (El Salvadorian-born) actors (and brothers) playing The Molina Bros., 2 illegal Mexican Nationals who somehow conned thier way into the convention’s limited-access only G.O.P. vendor area and got their own booth selling Limited-Issue presidential-style Black Velvet Republican paintings called Patriot Portrait Collectibles–Tijuana Black Velvet Paintings of all the prominent Republicans of the moment–Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, Bob Dole, Pete Wilson etc. and the Republican presidential godfathers–Reagan, Nixon, Lincoln–too. Just your basic American Dream story. </p><p>The ending was to be set somewhere in the middle of America’s Hertland… after the few months between the last convention in Chicago and the 1996 election during which time, the Molina Bros. had been everywhere, starting with Chicago and the Democratic Convention, (Story-line-wise it was because the Molinas weren’t entirely clear on the two party system and had just heard at the Republican Convention that "the next convention" was going to be in Chicago in a week and had hoped to leverage their meager profits from the first convention into a full-fledged small-business…) and had since spent a few desperate months driving through America trying to sell their limited-issue velvet republicans… and finally washing up at a McDonald’s Parking Lot in Kansas in the rain… on the evening of election day 1996… with an overdue Rental Van full of unsold velvet Bob Dole paintings.The two brothers, down to their last few dollars and out of hope entirely, listen to the election results as Clinton is in the process of winning handily… </p><p>Oh man it was going to be so sad! And then after plenty of stress-filled, disappointment-tinged moments of silence… The younger brother, Danny Molina, suggests perhaps that maybe they should just switch and make velvet Democrats. Ricardo, the older brother, chews him out w/ a look which somehow conveys–Velvet Democrats! Total-Idiot, that doesn’t even make sense!… and then more elecction results and pinging rain on the metal roof, inside silence and despair fog the van’s windows… Velvet Dole and Velvet Newt look on glumly, giddy clinton supporters talk to the reporter on the radio … And that’s when Danny does it. Saves the day with nothing more than a good idea–the american way: "What about… Denim? . . . Denim Democrats???"</p><p>Cue Burst of Success-Music as credits roll over The Molina bros on a QVC-like Infomercialish show hawking their new line of reallly quite affordable Denim Democrats with a heavily accented hyper-sales-pitch. The Molina brothers, the Bartles and James of Black Velvet make good. The End….</p><p>Yeah so the point of all that was, yes you’re on the right track with the idea of Blue… but as I’m sure you can see now, it’s gotta be on Denim.</p><p>–Bill Robison, <br>Founding Father of Indignico Inc.<br>President of Patriot Portrait Collectibles<br>The Patriot Portrait Collectibles of Indignico Inc. . . Quality you can feel…<br></p>