Angry in the Great White North

Thorarinn Jonsson, the Icelandic art student attending the Ontario College of Art and Design is facing charges related to an art project. He made a realistic looking pipe bomb, put it in the lobby of the Royal Ontario Museum, and in doing so caused a major bomb scare:

Condemnation, and applause, for Thorarinn Jonsson's fake bomb art project continued to mount Friday, as the student was released from jail on $33,000 bail.

The Ontario College of Art and Design student turned himself in to police Thursday night and was charged with common nuisance and mischief that interferes with property after a device, which was made to look like a pipe bomb, was left in a bag at the Royal Ontario Museum on Wednesday.

The museum had to be evacuated and a major fundraiser for AIDS research canceled, as police investigated the suspicious package, that turned out to be a hoax.

Thorarinn has an opportunity to learn from this experience, since clearly the quality of learning at OCAD was defficient. But in order to learn something, he needs to surround himself with people who are wise, or at the very least, exhibit some common sense.

A good first step for Thorarinn Jonsson is to drop Daniel Epstein from his list of close buddies:

Friends who attended court to support Jonsson denounced what one described as a "witch hunt".

"It's art because it makes us think," said Daniel Epstein, a U of T student.

Is that all? It triggers some thoughts?

It is true that Thorarinn's art made us think.

We think Thorarinn Jonsson is an idiot, and have doubts about his family tree. I'm also willing to be quite a few people think that the Jonsson family tree shouldn't proceed any farther along Thorarinn's branch.

OK, I'm thinking thanks to Thorarinn Jonsson's art. And yet I don't think this is what Jonsson or Daniel Epstein were hoping for.

Sometimes you need friends who tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Worse yet are the friends who tell you what they wish people would tell them.

I wonder if Daniel Epstein is an would-be artist who wishes people would judge his art according to equally indeterminate standards.