[Leica] Off-Topic: Butchering Eisenstaedt

[Alex Brattell <alex@zetetic.co.uk>]

>     I can understand the argument that "every time a piece of music or art 
>     is used [commercially]...it cheapens the original," but I disagree.  I 
>     think art is not so fragile, not so easily cheapened as that.  And, on 
>     the contrary, one could as easily conclude that the "misappropriation" 
>     brings the art, however briefly and with whatever distortion, into the 
>     awareness of some who otherwise might never experience it.  Who knows! 
>     I can only say that such use never "cheapens the original," or "erodes 
>     the reputation of the creator," for me.  

Absolutely!!
I have heard that the definition of an intellectual is someone who can
listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of Robin Hood.
Bad use of good work can at least spread the word - the quality of the
original will still get through and awake someone's interest in the source.
If we are oversensitive about such aesthetic squalor we'd just fume all day
- - there's so much of it about.
And yet, sometimes what gets me going is the thought that people are
actually paid to inflict such terrible ideas on the rest of us (especially
true of car and financial services advertisements)

Best wishes from the Ivory Tower

Alex