Obama-Lincoln Gets the Rainbow Treatment in Boston

A show called "a politic" opened over the holiday weekend at Gallery XIV in Boston. Accompanying it was a legally-posted Warholized billboard installation of Ron English's "Obama-Lincoln" fusion portrait. Given its prismatic tints, it's a shame it wasn't up for gay pride.

UPDATE: The enthusiasm of English fans, who have pasted the image all around the city, has caused a major stink among local businesses and residents.

AnimalNewYork has a slide show of the installation, and you can check out a video
AFTER THE JUMP...

(via slam x hype)

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Is it Abraham Lincoln?

Recently-discovered stereoscopic photos reveal a man in a stovepipe hat in the midst of a procession at Gettysburg. Some claim it is Abraham Lincoln on horseback, on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

Others note the presence of many men in stovepipe hats surrounding Lincoln just after his speech.

The two photos together nevertheless provide a fascinating glimpse of that moment in 1863.

Here's how the discovery happened, according to USA Today: "John Richter, 51, of Hanover, Pa., had loved Gettysburg since he was a kid; for 20 years had been collecting stereoviews or stereographs, which use special viewers to turn pairs of images into a 3-D view. A board member of the non-profit Center for Civil War Photography, he had always been interested in the Gettysburg stereoviews, available free for the past several years on the Library of Congress website. When he saw negatives 1159 and 1160, taken seconds apart, he said to himself, 'I think I see something going on.' Like the scientist who discovered Pluto because he knew where to look, Richter knew from historic descriptions of the ceremonies that the 4-by-7-inch plates of the troop procession ought to have Lincoln in there somewhere. 'If I wouldn't have seen Lincoln there, it would have been a surprise,' he said. So he asked the center's president, Bob Zeller, to request much larger, more richly detailed computer files. Richter zoomed in tight and found what he was looking for: Lincoln on horseback — or so he believes."

This is the kind of situation where you believe what you want, and it'll make you much happier.

Related
Abe Lincoln's Intimate Encounters [tr]
Assassinated Presidents [tr]

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Abe Lincoln's Intimate Encounters

A new book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, concludes, as has long been proposed, that Abraham Lincoln was a gay man. The book is understandably being met by controversy with scholars that disagree, but is also being met with as much, if not more, agreement.

According to the NYT review, among author C.A. Tripp's assertions are that Lincoln had a "youthful affair" of four years with Joshua Speed, had a homosexual relationship with bodyguard David V. Derickson, shared a bed with a man named Billy Greene who told Lincoln's law partner that the president's thighs "were as perfect as a human being Could be," and "wooed" fellow lawyer Henry C. Whitney "to close intimacy and familiarity."

The book argues that it was Lincoln's homosexuality that led to his volatile relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln and describes an account by bodyguard Derickson's commanding officer: "Captain Derickson, in particular, advanced so far in the president's confidence and esteem that, in Mrs. Lincoln's absence, he frequently spent the night at his cottage, sleeping in the same bed with him and — it is said — making use of his Excellency's night-shirts!"

Finally, Larry Kramer is quoted regarding the book, which he says will change history. "It's a revolutionary book because the most important president in the history of the United States was gay. Now maybe they'll leave us alone, all those people in the party he founded."

It's more likely they'll exorcise the Lincoln bedroom.

"Finding Homosexual Threads in Lincoln's Legend" [NYT]

The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln [Amazon]

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Assassinated Presidents

These have been around for a while, but now seems as good a time as any to trot them out again. Eerie similarities between the lives of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, both assassinated.

Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Lincoln's wife lost a child while living in the White House.
Kennedy's wife lost a child while living in the White House.

Both were directly concerned with Civil Rights.

Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theater.
Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who told him not to go to Dallas.

Lincoln was shot in the back of  the head in the presence of his wife.
Kennedy was shot in the back of  the head in the presence of his wife.

Lincoln shot in the Ford Theatre.
Kennedy shot in a Lincoln, made by Ford.

Both were killed on a Friday.

Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was known by three names, comprised of fifteen letters.
Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was known by three names, comprised of fifteen letters.

Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a warehouse.
Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater.

Booth was killed before being brought to trial.
Oswald was killed before being brought to trial.

Lincoln's successor was Andrew Johnson, born in 1808.
Kennedy's successor was Lyndon Johnson, born in 1908.

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