YEAH, OCTOBER GOT REAL WEIRD… I discover there are sharks in the water.
This topic got the largest amount of traffic in the shortest amount of time. In October, I got over 30-40 hits per day for over two weeks. That is (easily) 500 views. I posted a number of posts just presenting evidence of how Levi Hastings, celebrated gay Seattle Artist, has a very unhealthy and criminal fixation on my work. He has a long list of galleries and artists on his resume, and many of them look like they have (unacknowledged) Plagerism by Levi Hastings Too, including a cover on famed Seattle Weekly Newspaper, The Stranger, home paper to Dan Savage. And their Hastings “Mastadon” cover is an obvious case of straight up plagerism, but again these papers like the Stranger (apparently) don’t do oversight on copyright violations. Do they know they hosted a plagerist on their cover, and do they even want to know? This is the gallery scene now – entitled affluent, amoral children with no standards at all. They copy comic artists, then cop a superiority trip. No thanks, not my demographic .
WHAT HAPPENED? COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT?
After a year of slaving through stage four cancer and a number of health issues to produce my original best for readers, I came across the October 17th Cover of the Willamette Week. This weekly newspaper has a very large circulation in Portland. I recognized something odd about the cover, and then a half dozen people who know my work confirmed that it looked a lot like I drew it. I investigated the cover artist, and looked closely at that cover.
It turns out an extremely inattentive and incompetent editorial staff at the Willamette Week passed for publishing a cover by (as I discovered) serial plagerist Levi Hastings. WIthout too much trouble, I discovered the exact drawing of mine that Hastings scanned and tweaked (a little) with the Photoshop Transform Tool. I was even able to replicate his process because he was lazy about the theft.
WILLAMETTE WEEK – BIG MEDIA BULLY
Publisher Paul Webber and Editor-In-Chief Mark Zusman, have decided to ignore my very valid claim (see images). They have deliberately ignored over seven notices from me, including several posted on pages on their site (which are still there). I have three years to pursue a lawsuit. I have to balance my need to move on, with my desire for justice. But it bothers me that the Willamette Week is so amoral about using its big media size and power to exploit local artists and cover up their crime. What assholes.
PAUL WEBBER’S RACIST HIRING POLICY AT WILLAMETTE WEEK.
I also checked into the Willamette Week’s staff, and it turns out that they (apparently) only hire white men, and a few white women. I went as far as a careful check of their photographs on image searchers, triple checking the correct name. GUESS WHAT – The Willamette Week has no black or latino employees unless they are hidden in the back office, in a city where 25% are either black or latino (with no aspiring journalists?).
Out of 15 staff (reporters, designers, editors), there are only four are women (all white). The women are younger than the men. Editorial staff is restricted to older white men. There are no black, latino and/or dark skinned employees, at all. Apparently they are completely unable to find anyone with the talent to be a good reporter (with darker skin), to help them spot a fucking obvious fake right on their goddam cover BEFORE publication. I guess they keep Honkey for his incompetence? For the record, Portland is 25% Black and Latino, in a town where the local “progressive paper” is “WHITES ONLY – PLEASE LEAVE YOUR RESUME IN THE TRASH.” No wonder the WW does not work on the merit system. They are more intested in protecting white jobs. You have to work real, real hard to get 100% pure white in your hiring. Gross.
I wonder – do I walk away, or urge building a quarantime wall to keep the scum from escaping the cess pool? I have not decided yet. But I do know that Paul Webber and Mark Zusman are self satisfied exploitive douchbags with a phony mission statement and a racist hiring policy. Complete Phonies. It’s actually quite common in “official Portland.”
You can get the main evidence file right here. I posted quite a bit about this case in October. I don’t think I want to give up yet, but I can’t let my life get taken over because Paul Weber promotes irresponsible, illegal publishing practices and racial purity. Ick. Really Really gross. These are the affluent white liberals that presume to lecture to the rest of us on race and plagerism. But end of the day Paul Webber just leads a parasitic organization that is probably too corrupt to be reformed.
I would warn all independent artist about the WIllamette Week corrupt practices, and if you are a black or latino person who wants to be a reporter? Apply somewhere else – where they don’t throw away the resumes of talented people.
Oberon Destroyers 