As tax season slowly releases its grip on April USA Today reports on the amazing tax policy in Mexico in place since 1957 that allows artists to pay their taxes with artwork, creating an invaluable collection for the nation.
“Some of the art is explicit, but no matter.
‘There’s no censorship here,’ says Julieta Ruiz, a curator at the museum.
If anything, the temptation to needle the taxman makes the art even edgier.”
DECEMBER 8 — DIEGO RIVERA
Great Mexican muralist, Marxist, agit-prop conspirator.
DECEMBER 8, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
BUDDHIST BODHI DAY: ROHATSU.
FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. TAKE IT IN THE EAR DAY.
ALSO ON DECEMBER 8 IN HISTORY…
1810 — World peace advocate Elihu Burritt, the “Learned Blacksmith,” born.
1859 — British opium-eater, romantic writer Thomas De Quincey dies.
1886 — Radical Mexican muralist Diego Rivera born, Guanajuato.
1925 — “The Coconuts,” starring the Marx Brothers, opens on Broadway.
1940 — Four hundred German planes bomb London, England.
1980 — Ex-Beatle John Lennon shot to death, New York City.
Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.
NOVEMBER 25 — BA JIN
Chinese anarchist, lifelong revolutionist, novelist.
“I am a person always full of contradictions… It was hard to choose whether to devote myself to revolution as a soldier or as a writer.”
NOVEMBER 25 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Islamic HAJJ begins. USE EVEN IF SEAL IS BROKEN DAY.
FESTIVAL OF SHADOW ECONOMIES. Suriname: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1975).
ALSO ON NOVEMBER 25 IN HISTORY
1904 — Chinese anarchist novelist Ba Jin born, Chengtu, Szechwan, China.
1957 — Radical Mexican muralist Diego Rivera dies, Mexico City, Mexico.
1968 — American socialist novelist, politician Upton Sinclair dies.
1970 — Right-wing gay Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima dies by his own hand.
1974 — British folk-pop composer Nick Drake dies, Tanworth-in-Arden, England.
Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.
Arthur Magazine 