1) In a cultural moment of weakness, your humble Gote spent Saturday evening at the Theatre, haggling with the evil usher lady about whether or not checking his "outerwear" was truly necessary (apparently so) and then being ignored by the despicable garderobe lady who failed to see that he was indeed waiting in line and didn't butt in there like any old lady at the post-office.
The real disappointment of the evening, however, was how boring and pointless Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is/was. Reminds me of Eugene Mirman's parody of a certain slice of the young Brooklyn population: "Oh, New York is so hard, wawawa." Except more in the key of "the landed gentry is being forced to abandon its untenable, antiquated, exploitative ways and wrapping it up in the nauseating aura of family values, nostalgia for a better time, and romantic love." As the kids used to say: gag me with a spoon. I think I prefer Ibsen. At least his characters were just plain old bat-shit crazy. A way better image.
2) I forgot what my other important opinion was. But it's finally gotten colder here, so the ground is super slippery (black ice!) and looks like it is paved with a layer diamonds. Sparkly, sparkly snow falling from the sky looks like mini strobe lights on a Saturday night. Ready-made outdoor disco for one.
Use your imagination for this one.
1/28/09
Ugh, That Was Totally Uncalled For! What Was That Lady Thinking? Gross!
Okay, two things.
One:
OMFG, how did I not know about this ahead of time? I suppose this raises a question: what's more important - religious sentiment or sheer awesomeness? Cause, you know, they're dunkin' for Jeebus, people. (via)
And two: Have you seen Rachel Maddow's interview with Gov. F-word, a.k.a. Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich? If you have not, you need to download it on the itunes or get it on the youtube or whatever. It is mesmerizing. This man is an absolute maniac and I found it nearly impossible to turn away from his car-wreck of a self-defense. Here's how crazy it was: I actually agreed with him about the "innocent until proven guilty" thing and wished that other politicians *ahem, Eliot Spitzer* would stick up for themselves a bit more instead of slinking off and letting those sharks have the last laugh. What?! Eliot "I am a fucking steamroller" Spitzer? This is some strong brew. Fasten your seat-belts.
One:
OMFG, how did I not know about this ahead of time? I suppose this raises a question: what's more important - religious sentiment or sheer awesomeness? Cause, you know, they're dunkin' for Jeebus, people. (via)
And two: Have you seen Rachel Maddow's interview with Gov. F-word, a.k.a. Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich? If you have not, you need to download it on the itunes or get it on the youtube or whatever. It is mesmerizing. This man is an absolute maniac and I found it nearly impossible to turn away from his car-wreck of a self-defense. Here's how crazy it was: I actually agreed with him about the "innocent until proven guilty" thing and wished that other politicians *ahem, Eliot Spitzer* would stick up for themselves a bit more instead of slinking off and letting those sharks have the last laugh. What?! Eliot "I am a fucking steamroller" Spitzer? This is some strong brew. Fasten your seat-belts.
1/25/09
A National Arts Adviser?
Buster's talking about the Office of the Historian has gotten me to thinking: why in the world doesn't the US have anyone officially in charge of our arts policy? And looky here: a thoughtful piece arguing in favor of a national arts adviser to coordinate the different agencies involved in America's arts programs. Green is not talking about just funding the arts (yes, we do have the National Endowment for the Arts), but somebody actually coordinating strategic efforts to direct arts policy, from diplomacy to education to regional arts intiatives, preservation, etc etc etc. I am especially enthusiastic about the idea of somebody in charge of advocating more ardently for arts education, addressing visa issues for cultural exchange, and (Green doesn't mention it, but...) some kind of national database of visual, print, and film material in public institutions and in the public domain (kind of like the Archives of American Art or Canada's National Film Board, but you know, bigger and better and integrating all American public museum collections).
I have to admit that when I first saw the title of the piece, the first thing that came to mind was the Cold War attempts to use avant-garde art as a form of soft power to buy the hearts and minds of Communist citizens. Look! Abstract Art! Freedom! (This is was a pretty trendy line of art history scholarship a little while back.) Clearly, though, there are many other ways in which cultural policy is relevant and necessary, and this piece outlines a whole slew of them. My only criticism: he leaves out any discussion of whom we might entrust with such an important post. This person would have to be familiar with both international diplomacy, domestic (particularly local) policy, and the private and public art worlds, which are all some specialized, cliquey realms. In Europe (at least in France), they've long had someone like this. But an American André Malreaux*? I can't even imagine.
*Well, except for that whole stealing bas reliefs from Cambodian temples thing...we have our own problems with repatriation of cultural objects of dubious provenance, thank you very much.
I have to admit that when I first saw the title of the piece, the first thing that came to mind was the Cold War attempts to use avant-garde art as a form of soft power to buy the hearts and minds of Communist citizens. Look! Abstract Art! Freedom! (This is was a pretty trendy line of art history scholarship a little while back.) Clearly, though, there are many other ways in which cultural policy is relevant and necessary, and this piece outlines a whole slew of them. My only criticism: he leaves out any discussion of whom we might entrust with such an important post. This person would have to be familiar with both international diplomacy, domestic (particularly local) policy, and the private and public art worlds, which are all some specialized, cliquey realms. In Europe (at least in France), they've long had someone like this. But an American André Malreaux*? I can't even imagine.
*Well, except for that whole stealing bas reliefs from Cambodian temples thing...we have our own problems with repatriation of cultural objects of dubious provenance, thank you very much.
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