{"id":28,"date":"2008-07-13T12:44:27","date_gmt":"2008-07-13T19:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2008-08-11T08:45:11","modified_gmt":"2008-08-11T15:45:11","slug":"the-obama-meme-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"The Obama Meme: Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I visited a craft fair in San Francisco. I wasn&#8217;t there as &#8220;zombie,&#8221; or looking for something political to blog about &#8212; I was just looking to shop for craft-y arts and accessories. <\/p>\n<p>Luckily, I followed my new rule: Never leave home without a camera.<\/p>\n<p>Because even here, in the most unlikely of places, the Obama Meme cropped up again. It seems there&#8217;s no way to avoid it. Amongst the handmade earrings and stuffed animals and trendy silkscreened t-shirts were images of our culture&#8217;s new folk icon, Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, I was more than halfway through the fair before I recognized the pattern of Obama imagery around me, so I didn&#8217;t photograph many of them. But I did catch a few snapshots of Obama idolatry as I strolled through the remaining booths.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that the craft fair was in no way political, and needless to say I didn&#8217;t see any other candidates mentioned or depicted. It&#8217;s just that iconic pictures of Obama have already become a standard feature in the fashion world. Is Obama the new Che?<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/wp-content\/images\/IMG_3838.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s a handmade greeting card featuring Obama as a Pez dispenser &#8212; or, in his case, &#8220;Prez&#8221; dispenser.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/wp-content\/images\/IMG_3810.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s a hand-printed poster showing Stern Obama, making us feel guilty for our extravagances.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/wp-content\/images\/IMG_3811.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nThis blurry picture (sorry) shows a poster which optimistically refers to him already as &#8220;President Obama.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/wp-content\/images\/IMG_3868.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nLater, apropos of nothing, after I left the fair I noticed this &#8220;Commie&#8221; disguise in a novelty shop above a sign that said &#8220;Ready. Set. <strong>Hope<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/wp-content\/images\/IMG_3870.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nRight above it was an &#8220;Obama Rama&#8221; air freshener. (Note to company that makes this product: Wouldn&#8217;t &#8220;Obamaroma&#8221; have been a much better name?)<\/p>\n<p>Any time I encounter further examples of the emerging &#8220;Obama Meme,&#8221; I&#8217;ll post them here.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATE: The &#8220;Chicagoist&#8221; site posted <a href=\"http:\/\/chicagoist.com\/2008\/02\/04\/art_design_obam.php\" target=\"_blank\">this excellent collection of Obama folk designs<\/a> several months ago. I didn&#8217;t realize that Obama meme-spotting was already a well-established sport!<br \/>\n<em>(Thanks to reader Linda L. for finding the link.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>UPDATE #2: The &#8220;magpie and cake&#8221; crafting blog has <a href=\"http:\/\/magpieandcake.blogspot.com\/2008\/02\/obama-art.html\" target=\"_blank\">another gallery of Obama-themed crafts<\/a> from earlier this year.<br \/>\n<em>(Thanks to reader Ringo the Gringo for the link.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I visited a craft fair in San Francisco. I wasn&#8217;t there as &#8220;zombie,&#8221; or looking for something political to blog about &#8212; I was just looking to shop for craft-y arts and accessories. Luckily, I followed my new rule: Never leave home without a camera. Because even here, in the most unlikely of places, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zombietime.com\/zomblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}