Summary: August Bleed has created a pamphlet on the subtle art of shoplifting. Here, he explains the theoretical and methodological approach to "merchandise liberation."
A radio station would get a lot of calls for airing this. The piece makes a sort of game out of shoplifting. It's utterly engaging and well done. I think it could do very well on "This American Life" or a similar show. But to get it aired anywhere else, I think you'd need to balance it with another viewpoint, in order to keep the station's sponsors from pulling their funding.
With the holidays upon us, 'tis the season to shop till we drop. As another recent piece pointed out, Americans spend hundreds of billions on gifts, including Christmas trees. Like the well-reviewed "The Christmas Tree Incident," "Shoplifting 101" flies in the face of yuletide commercialism. Both pieces revive an anti-establishment, devil-may-care ethos I associate with the 1960s. I welcome the slapdash humor here, though PDs may be dour as Scrooges.
"Stocky, well-tattooed, wide-eyed, sporting a fedora cap and wide grin," August Bleed is a socialistic egalitarian who would like to spread the wealth. His name suggests his skills at bleeding, or liberating, merchandise from store shelves with the august savoir faire of a master shoplifter. His five-part "manifesto" on the art of larceny is briskly entertaining. You will especially yuck it up when you hear Bleed describe the "five-finger asana," in which the pilferer takes a deep yogic breath, sucking in his abdomen to form a pocket beneath the rib cage. Into this pocket goes a 19-inch monitor or, for that matter, a laptop.
What Bleed ignores of course are electronic surveillance devices designed to go off like air-raid sirens when "merchandise liberators" march through doors at Wal-Mart and Target -- or as Bleed fashionably pronounces it, "Tarzhay."
Far be it for me to call the store detectives on August Bleed and producer Eric Zassenhaus. They've given us all some precious stolen goods uncommon during these weeks of strait-laced holiday mayhem.
Comments for Shoplifting 101
Produced by Eric Zassenhaus
Other pieces by Eric Zassenhaus
Rating Summary
2 comments
Joshua McNichols
Posted on December 10, 2007 at 07:15 AM | Permalink
Review of Shoplifting 101
A radio station would get a lot of calls for airing this. The piece makes a sort of game out of shoplifting. It's utterly engaging and well done. I think it could do very well on "This American Life" or a similar show. But to get it aired anywhere else, I think you'd need to balance it with another viewpoint, in order to keep the station's sponsors from pulling their funding.
James Reiss
Posted on November 27, 2007 at 05:25 AM | Permalink
Review of Shoplifting 101
With the holidays upon us, 'tis the season to shop till we drop. As another recent piece pointed out, Americans spend hundreds of billions on gifts, including Christmas trees. Like the well-reviewed "The Christmas Tree Incident," "Shoplifting 101" flies in the face of yuletide commercialism. Both pieces revive an anti-establishment, devil-may-care ethos I associate with the 1960s. I welcome the slapdash humor here, though PDs may be dour as Scrooges.
"Stocky, well-tattooed, wide-eyed, sporting a fedora cap and wide grin," August Bleed is a socialistic egalitarian who would like to spread the wealth. His name suggests his skills at bleeding, or liberating, merchandise from store shelves with the august savoir faire of a master shoplifter. His five-part "manifesto" on the art of larceny is briskly entertaining. You will especially yuck it up when you hear Bleed describe the "five-finger asana," in which the pilferer takes a deep yogic breath, sucking in his abdomen to form a pocket beneath the rib cage. Into this pocket goes a 19-inch monitor or, for that matter, a laptop.
What Bleed ignores of course are electronic surveillance devices designed to go off like air-raid sirens when "merchandise liberators" march through doors at Wal-Mart and Target -- or as Bleed fashionably pronounces it, "Tarzhay."
Far be it for me to call the store detectives on August Bleed and producer Eric Zassenhaus. They've given us all some precious stolen goods uncommon during these weeks of strait-laced holiday mayhem.