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NEW YORK New Yorkers pride themselves on their blasé — nothing will phase a well-trained city pedestrian. But artist Zefrey Throwell’s urban intervention turned even the most stoic of heads: those of Wall Street traders. Throwell’s “Ocularpation: Wall Street” saw 50 performers strip down and mime different Wall Street-related professions (traders, yes, but also janitors, secretaries, and everything in between) in a critique of the financial industry, a piece inspired by the plight of the artist’s mother,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, a 60 year old woman who lost her retirement savings in the economic crash, and was forced to come out of retirement to look for a job.

Throwell’s piece caused some gawking on the street, and shocked viewers into reconsidering their relationship to what Throwell calls “the most mysterious street in America.” “Ocularpation” was developed while the artist was in a residency given by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council: for 6 months, Throwell worked in a basement studio at 14 Wall Street and investigated the area’s significance, social, political, and artistic. ARTINFO spoke to the artist just hours after the “Ocularpation” performance ended, and chatted about the inspiration for the performance, the immediate reaction, and why it wasn’t “just a flash mob where people run up and take their clothes off”: 

What was the inspiration for the “Ocularpation” performance?

My mother put away her money, like a good American, into retirement, and she retired in mid-60s. Then the stock market crashed, and she lost almost all of her savings. She had to come out of retirement and look for a job, but no one wanted to hire a woman in her mid-60s. It took her a long time to find a job. First she was depressed, but then she was furious. Over the course of the past 3 years, there has been no change in the system that caused the damage that violently altered her life. She feels she was straight up swindled by people who had nothing happen to them.

This project is a direct response to the opacity of the financial industry in the United States. It’s call “Ocularpation Wall Street”, a combination of ocular, as in sight, and occupation, meaning job, and the taking of a site, the military term. Aggressively performing your profession in public.

How did the actual performance get started?

The first half was a survey that I took of Wall Street, to find out who actually works on Wall Street. I went business to business, asking what jobs they did there. I came up with a chart listing who works on the most mysterious street in America. Then I got performers to perform those jobs, in the percentage that they were represented, on the street itself.

There were 10% personal assistants, 8% stock traders, and 2% prostitutes, for example. The actual project had 200 people in it, 50 performers, and then there were helpers, and there were people documenting it. We met up in a park beforehand, then walked down to Wall Street, and everyone was spread out evenly down the whole street. Right at 7 a.m. people began working their professions, I was a hot dog vendor. Lawyers, federal workers, museum workers, janitorial was huge. The performers started clothed, after about a minute, they start stripping down, they were naked for maybe a minute, then they started putting clothes back on. At 7:05 it was all over.

Who were your volunteers?

Mostly artists I know, a few people who contacted me about the performance as well. Drea Bernardi, she’s an artist that helped me a lot with the performance.

I heard a few people actually got arrested. What was the reaction like?    

There were three arrested out of 50, they were taken to 1st Precinct, charged with disorderly conduct, and something else I haven’t heard of before, exposure of a person. [Note: Throwell followed the three and later bailed them out.]

The general reaction was fantastic, actually. The NYPD was very excited, very supportive. They wanted to talk about it, to know what I think about it. Public reaction was also fantastic. I’m a fan of the absurd; I think it’s something audiences really get. Still, a lot of people didn’t even stop and look, they just kept walking, Blackberries blazing. If an army of naked people can’t get you to stop, I don’t know what can.

Did you warn anyone before the performance started?

No. These are public streets. Part of my practice is reclaiming public property for us. As our culture is slowly devoured by corporations and all the public things begin to disintegrate, it’s our responsibility as citizens to aggressively reclaim space for ourselves.

Was the performance just about the Wall Street crash, or are there other political factors?

It’s no coincidence that we scheduled a performance for the day that America was going to default. My personal feelings are that, with these mechanics that affect our current financial state … it’s just not this abstract concept. My mother is this woman who was derailed from the reward of being a hard working American. It’s very concrete, very real. It’s easy in the news to get lost in the abstract pie graphs of unemployment, but that’s definitely not the case here.

So this is your way of putting Wall Street’s machinations in front of people’s faces?    

Yeah.

See the slideshow at left for photos of Zefrey Throwell’s “Ocularpation: Wall Street” performance. Warning: They definitely feature naked people. 

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HOUSTON It didn’t take long mere seconds, in fact to create a new hole in the skyline of Houston’s medical district.

Demolition crews used high explosives to implode the 20-story former Prudential Building that had been a landmark of the district landscape southwest of downtown Houston since 1952.

The crews had planned initially to touch off the explosives shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday,wholesale Ed hardy scarves, but dense fog delayed the series of blasts until 11:15 a.m.

The Prudential Insurance Co. of America built the 500,000-square-foot skyscraper to serve as its southwest regional headquarters. The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center bought the building in 1974 and made it the center’s main building in 1980 before vacating and closing the building in April 2010.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) The next installment of the “Paranormal Activity” franchise will arrive in movie theaters this October — a month that traditionally has been successful for the horror franchise — Paramount Pictures said Wednesday.

The studio will release the fourth installment of its series on October 19.

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“Paranormal 4″ will open against “The Big Wedding,” a romantic comedy from Lionsgate, and “Gangster Squad,” a Warner Bros. crime drama.

TheWrap reported in October that a fourth “Paranormal” was all but certain.

BEIJING China called on the European Union on Thursday to heed objections to its plans to charge airlines for carbon emissions and to hold talks with opponents.

The charges, which took effect Sunday, are aimed at curbing emissions of climate-changing gases but airlines oppose them as an improper tax. The ratings agency Fitch warned last month the conflict could spiral into a global trade dispute.

“China opposes the EU forcing through unilateral legislation,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei. “We hope the EU side will be prudent and practical and deal with this issue through consultations with all relevant parties.”

The appeal came even after a European court last month rejected a lawsuit brought by U.S. airlines and supported by governments including China and India.

Beijing could have unusually strong leverage in a possible dispute because its state-owned airlines carry large numbers of Chinese and other Asian tourists to Europe. Any disruption would hurt Europe’s travel industry when the continent is struggling with a debt crisis and high unemployment.

Under the European system, airlines flying to or from Europe must obtain certificates for carbon dioxide emissions. They will get free credits to cover most flights this year but must buy or trade for credits to cover the rest.

Last month’s ruling by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg dismissed arguments that the system infringes national sovereignty or violates aviation treaties.

Environmentalists welcomed the program, one of the most far-reaching measures adopted by any government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Although only 3 percent of total human-caused carbon emissions come from aircraft, aviation is the fastest-growing source of carbon pollution.

The European Union has said the added costs would amount to a few dollars per ticket and would open the way for efficient airlines to make money rather than lose it.

Already this week, Delta Air Lines Inc. added a $6 charge per round trip on tickets sold in the U.S. for travel to Europe and Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it will raise prices but not right away.

Fitch Ratings warned last month that possible retaliation “will pose growing threats to aviation market access” in both developed and emerging markets. It said that might affect authorizations for routes and landing slots.

Chinese airlines have not decided whether to add a ticket surcharge, said Chai Haibo, deputy secretary-general of China Air Transport Association, an industry group.

Asked whether Chinese carriers might refuse to pay the charges, Chai said, “It has not come to that stage yet.”

A trade group for U.S. carriers, Airlines for America,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, has said its members would comply “under protest,” while reviewing legal options.

___

AP researcher Zhao Liang and AP writer Christopher Bodeen contributed.

The 35-year-old actress is being offered the lead role in Sony Pictures’ Sex Tape, Deadline reports. Jason Segel, 31, has reportedly been inquired apt activity Witherspoon’s husband in the raunchy sitcom.

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The role would be an interesting choice as Witherspoon, who spoke out against real-life sex tapes by the MTV Movie Awards in June.

“When I came up in this business, whether you made a sex tape, you were embarrassed and you hid it beneath your bed,” she said. “And whether you took undressed pictures of yourself on your compartment phone, you hide your face, folk!”

PHOTOS: Reese Witherspoon’s 10 best hairstyles ever!

Nick Stoller — who has worked with Segel ashore Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Five-Year Engagement — is reportedly in talks to straight.

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Is Reese Witherspoon prepared to shed her agreeable girl image?

Written at Kate Angelo, the script functions a marital pair who try to spice up their adore life at production a personal sex tape. Unfortunately, the tape goes lacking and they work on a desperate quest to repossess it.

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