fToo often ignored is the practice of “white slavery” openly displayed on the streets of SoHo. This unfortunate woman has all the marks of this terrible form of bondage, from the word Shanghai in English and Chinese displayed on her chest, to being forced to wear a shirt sized too small for her and blue jeans that are rags, her submissive status shown by exposing the top of her intimate garments, to being forced to carry a bag that depersonalizes her as an “ape”, to wearing easy to spot harlequin shoes, to having her nails marked with a weird bright color, to the distinguishing hair style that indicates hours of torture with chemicals, heat and iron, to the life shortening sugared soda she is reduced to drinking, to the electronic device connected to her brain that drains her of free will and initiative.

I’ve never had more trouble with a title. The connection of the trumpet with the vulgar and fatalistic/nihilistic text raised to an angel of the Apocalypse is irresistible. But what title would dellight while making that connection? Finding one was torture

Here were some: Post Christian Apocalypse? Apocalypse Now (Rev. 8-10) The Final Whimper. So Gentlemen, Is This How it Ends?

My favorite was The Final Whimper, but my wife said people would not understand it (not you, of course, my dear friends.) That required connecting The Waste Land and Rev: 8-10.

The current title is friendly to people who are not all that familiar with the Apocalypse in literature.  And for those who are, messenger means angel.

Whitney Museum