The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism profile picture

The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism

Revised second printing of "Gruesome Acts" book!

About Me

THE ‘GRUESOME’ HISTORY:
The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism started out as a chapbook published in 1998 by SMARTEN UP! & Get To The Point Publishing, and was sold at Mecca Normal shows. This chapbook was later featured in the hardcover book ZINES (Booth-Clibborn Editions) in 2001. The book also was selected for the curated touring Bookmobile Project. The current edition published by Arbeiter Ring Publishing in Winnipeg, Canada came out in 2005 and a revised second printing in late 2006.
WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT?:
The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism is a beautiful book full of hard numbers. Located at the intersection of the statistical and the artistic, this catalog of corporate horrors—poverty, exploitation, and injustice—is a damning indictment of capitalism created with both love and rage. One in five American children live in poverty. One hundred, thirty-five million of the world's women and girls have undergone genital mutilation. In Bangladesh, an estimated 500,000 people are slaves. The amount of money spent on ice cream in Europe would be enough to provide reproductive health for all women in developing countries.
Illustrated by the author and with a preface by Mecca Normal band-mate Jean Smith. All author royalties are donated to the Canadian Centre For The Victims of Torture.
10.95 CDN / 10.95 US; 112 pages ISBN: 1-894037-20-0 ISBN 13: 9781894037204
AUTHOR BIO:
David Lester is the guitar player in Mecca Normal, the underground rock duo with a 20-year history of combining dynamic music with powerful lyrics that deal with social concerns. Their latest CD is called "The Observer" (Kill Rock Stars). With his musical partner in Mecca Normal, Jean Smith, they give an engaging exciting lecture/presentation called "How Art & Music Can Change The World." Please contact us if you would like us to give the presentation at your school or event. He is also the creator of the "Inspired Agitators" poster series and as a cartoonist he drew the cautionary tale about fascism called "Noir Canada." His t-shirt designs include "Actually, I like crap." You can find much of his work available at buyolympia.com or go to Mecca Normal Newsletter for more information.
REVIEWS:
"A package of hard numbers encased in simple statements is all it takes in David Lester's The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism to make a powerful agit-prop tool out of a small book." -- New Internationalist (London, UK)
"Lester breaks down the system's more despicable traits into easy-to-read factoids that are certain to appall and inspire." -- Alternative Press (Cleveland, OH)
"This is the kind of book everybody should have in his or her possession." -- Indie Workshop (Des Moines, IA)
"Lester's pocket-sized book is a handy argument-enhancer, packed with hundreds of quick facts in crafty presentation, all of them reliably sourced. Get the book, win arguments." -- The Republic (Vancouver, BC)
"This book sucks."-- The Peak (Simon Fraser U, Burnaby, BC)
"It's actually quite entertaining... thanks to David Lester, now you too can use facts to back up your political arguments." -- Impose (New York)
"After having this next to my toilet for a few days I realized this book of numbers is written by a fucking idiot…" -- Vice Magazine (New York)
"If only every household in North America had a copy of this book on its living room coffee table." -- Wonka Vision (Philadelphia, PA)
"Charming in its clarity and understated simplicity of style, and adorned with pleasing and poignant artwork."— Briar Patch (Regina, SK)
INDIVIDUAL ORDERS:
AK Press orbuyolympia.com
BOOKSTORE ORDERS:
Bookstores in Canada: "The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism" by David Lester is published by Arbeiter Ring Please contact ARP directly to place an order: Phone: (204) 942-7058; Fax: (204) 944-9198. Email: [email protected]
Bookstores in the USA:
Contact AK Press Distribution. 674-A 23rd Street, Oakland, CA 94612 USA; Phone: (510) 208-1700; Fax: (510) 208-1701 [email protected] AK Press
Bookstores in the United Kingdom:
Please email: [email protected]
LINKS:
Latest MECCA NORMAL CD on buyOlympia
"How Art & Music Can Change the World" -- a Mecca Normal art exhibit, lecture and performance event -- now on MySpace
Art, Music, Books, Posters, Postcards and T-shirts available at buyOlympia
Mecca Normal Newsletter
Art Gallery Proposal -- Cover letter, Proposal, Artist Statement
Art Show Images: David Lester's Paintings -- mostly 12 X 12" canvas
David Lester Visual Resistance interview

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/26/2006
Band Website: mecca_normal.tripod.com
Band Members: Author: David Lester
Influences: Novelist Arundhati Roy:

“What can we do? We can reinvent civil disobedience in a million different ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of becoming a collective pain in the ass.”

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness—and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling—their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.”
Sounds Like: Action.
Record Label: SMARTEN UP! & Get To The Point
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Gruesome Acts reviewed in PLAZM Magazine

"David Lester, guitarist for Mecca Normal and an artist, has completed a shocking and disturbing dissection of human beings at their worst. The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism compiles roughly 100 pages o...
Posted by The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism on Sun, 18 Nov 2007 07:35:00 PST

EXCERPTS FROM The Gruesome Acts of Capirtalism

$13 billion a year (about as much as the people of the US and the EU spend each year on perfume) would satisfy the world's sanitation and food needs. -- Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde Diplomatique, 1998.T...
Posted by The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 08:01:00 PST

QUOTES on CAPITALISM:

"I keep on underestimating capitalism. I regard it as the world's evil, and I still continue to underestimate it&" -- Stephen Lewis, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, 2006 "I've ma...
Posted by The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:58:00 PST

Interview with David Lester by Visual Resistance

"Art, Music & politics" David Lester knows that art and music can change the world, and I believe it. His projects are rooted in radical history and punk rock, ranging from the band Mecca Normal ...
Posted by The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:57:00 PST

PREFACE to "Gruesome Acts" book by Jean Smith:

Jack contacted our band, Mecca Normal, several years ago and offered to create our first website. After that he took digital photos of our artwork and then he gave me two computers. Jack has continue...
Posted by The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:51:00 PST

INTERVIEW with David Lester in PUNK PLANET Magazine, 2005 (Chicago, IL)

1. After compiling this book of hard, inscrutable numbers, what was the most upsetting statistic you discovered?" Two statistics stand out. The first simply being that half of the world's population ...
Posted by The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:44:00 PST