Take a ganda', it's propaganda.

Hey, this is the part of the blog where Faith gets techno-savvy. Listen to today's blog here! Quality is less than Alan Cross, due to the fact it was posted via my cell phone. Enjoy.

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This is an elephant.



This is a living room.



This is an elephant inside of a living room.



As Samuel L. Jackson might say: What is a motherfucking elephant doing in a motherfucking living room?!

Many people pondered this last Thursday when Banksy, famed British graffiti artist or "art terrorist" as dubbed by some, unveiled his latest exhibit, "Barely Legal," in a warehouse of downtown LA.

Readers of my fellow classmate and blogger Amir may remember Banksy's previous stunt of pairing up with Danger Mouse and defacing about 300+ copies of Paris Hilton's new album. (The "Barely Legal" exhibit similarly features a copy of Paris' album crawling with live cockroaches and bearing the words, "Thou Shalt Not Worship False Icons.")

The main exhibit is a play on the old adage "hard to ignore as an elephant in the living room."

However, many people are overlooking the main message of the piece and are instead focusing on the fact that there was a live elephant in the warehouse. According to an article in the LA Times the elephant's caretaker said the friendly pachyderm, whose name is Tai, has done many movies and is "used to the make-up," however some animal rights activists have found the use of the Tai as "gimmicky" and an "unnecessary" exploitation of animals. Said one visitor to the show,

"'I don't think it was hurt but they never asked him if he wanted to be spray-painted. And I don't think that's right.'"

Pardon my language, but what the fuck? How do you ask an elephant if it wants to be painted?

"Excuse me, Prince Babar, but do you mind if I take a paintbrush to your skin?"

Hahahahaha, no.

Merriam-Webster.com defines propaganda as "the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person." This is exactly what Banksy's exhibit, well, exhibits! Issues such as world hunger, AIDS, poverty, war and general social injustices are being swept under the floor and pushed aside by domestic fluff and media delights. The fact that the elephant is painted like the interior of the room (and the fact that the many A-list celebrities came to gawk) is just an add to the irony.

But no, let's focus on the elephant. The poor elephant. That poor thirty-eight year old elephant that spends most of her life on a ranch in California, when she's not out and about sending world messages through avant-garde art shows. I'm not an advocate for animal cruelty, but at the same time, she's not a circus performer. She's not being underfed. She's quite comfortable other than the fact that she was painted with non-toxic red and gold paint.

Leave the myopia to the eye doctors, people. Think outside the elephant.