Atrael, the problem is that half of the posts you responded to were not posted by me If you want to question my knowledge of or opinions on a subject, at least do me the favor of responding to what I’ve actually said. Other than the OP, I didn’t post anything on the first page.
dpb, love, perhaps you aren’t satisfied with my answer to your second question because it wasn’t a valid question in the first place?
Ok Melatonin…You’re right…and I apologize for the misunderstanding…didn’t mean to put words in your mouth or attribut another’s to you.
That being said, only one of my quote’s was from the wrong person. The first one about the Vietnam Memorial.
Everything else applied to what you said…
I’ll give you the places agian…real slow this time…try not to miss 'em k?
What I find interesting about these statements is that they largly contradict themselves. You’re citing Russia as your area of expertise, but many of the writer/poets/artist/composers of the time period you refer to lived in…(suspense rising)Europe. So pick your arena please…While there are several great Russian authors/painter/composers/etc., the Rennaisance that you state that we ‘missed’ was mostly based in Europe.
I’ll state again, that I don’t necesarily think the NEA is a bad thing. I do believe some money to help museum’s is a way to help them keep cost’s down, and continue to operate. However, money is not needed for education…that’s already part of are school system…no need to put more money there. I don’t think money should be given to anyartist to help support them. And without presuming to speak for everyone, I think this is the major bone of contention. Some money to help out museum’s so they can be accessable to all is fine. Money given to someone because they need to “find themselves artisticly” is bull.
There are many many actors that hold 2 or more jobs while they search for their “big break”…should we give them money?..Many authors have other jobs to support themselves untill they get published…and manage just fine on their own. Same holds true for most musicians.
Not sure where you lived overseas, but I’ve been to Madrid, Paris, and Rome. In all these places, I’ve seen talented artists supporting themselves by selling their work during the day. So why should it be different here?
Again, my apologies for the mis-quoting.
I haven’t lost my mind, I have a tape backup around somewhere.
Not to drag this out, but you forgot to apologize to me for insulting Melanie’s ignorance of European history as well.
That being settled, I think I’ve tried to make it abundantly clear that I am not going to make grandios allegedly factual statements about things which I have no knowledge.
Therefore I used the example of Russia. As a result of the blah blah blah I described above, 18th and 19th century Russia produced such talents as Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. I am not going to argue with you as to whether these are any good or not.
I don’t know anything about the Rennasaince, other than the fact that it happened before the political USA existed.
I know that Russia, which also was most of which was in the stone age at the time of the Rennaissance, managed to evolve a national literature because of the blah blah blah I described.
(My opinion follows)For whatever reason (war poverty famine whatever) we did not have blah blah blah in the 18th and 19th centuries. We did not have much of anything, including a national identity. THIS IS MERELY MY EXPLANATION FOR WHY WE DO NOT HAVE AS LONG AND VARIED OF A CULTURAL HISTORY AS OTHER COUNTRIES. (sorry)
(This is fact) The financial and social structures that were in place at the time an place I mentioned with citational voracity are no longer there.
(Fucking A, where have I heard this before?)
(My opinion) What I propose is some form of support must be substituted (or, in the case of the NEA &H, simply not revoked) for them, in order that the US may continue to develop our own artistic tradition, or even catch up to and overtake those damn foreigners and bang our colective shoes on the table to make a point about it.
(Fact) So that my kids can watch PBS instead of the He-Man cartoon on TV. So that I, and ten of thousands of others, can complete our higher education without turning to something silly like Speculation, Gambling, or Table dances. So that authors like David Foster Wallace can survive into publication.
No, I’m not talking about Sculpture or Paintings. I never was (before you object, go and look at my posts). Yes, I have personal interests in maintaining public interest in the arts and humanities. (Who doesn’t have personal interests?)
(Fact) Lots and Lots of people benefit (both as doers and specatators) from public interest in the arts and humanities, and in connection from the NEA, the NEH, and other funds and organizations set up and maintained with the help of government money, tax breaks, and YES, private donations. The vast majority of them have the same aversion to shit as the rest of the population.
(opinion)The thing that REALLY REALLY REALLY bothers me, enough to put the graphic and bloodthirsty image that was once the title of this thread into my otherwise chaste mind, is the fact that Elizabeth Dole could pronounce, with no debate, no second thought, really no consideration whatsoever, in a press conference, “We need to stop funding the arts. We will choose what is and is not art.” (obviously not a direct quote, that was a couple of weeks ago).
What a simple solution. Without a backward glance at all the implications that those two slimy sentences carry. I understand that for her it may just be the party line, and for some people it may just be a whole bunch of political baggage. But there are people out there whose lives are/ would be directly affected by the implimentation this earth-shattering line of bullshit.
“There is nothing you ought to do, for the simple reason that you know nothing, nothing whatever- make a mental note of that, if you please.”
-V. Nabokov
There you go again Mela-asshole. Dragging in Public Broadcasting again. The subject is art funding, not public broadcasting.
As for your kids; how the hell can you possibly have kids? The last two or three posts sound like they came from a hysterical 13-year-old; not a parent .
A small clue for you , child. On this site, shrillness & zealotry do not constitute an argument that will persuade anyone.We demand a higher standard than that.
Attention C#3!The inside of your musty head is a exercise wheel;
in which two gerbils, Vanity and Credulity by
name, tussle fruitlessly over the walnut that
represents your banal & pointless existance.
While not pertinent, I’d like to gently remind you that every “hysterical thirteen year old” is a potential parent.
Wait, what was that about shrillness and zealotry? Surely you don’t think any of these lines contribute to your platform?!
“Melatonin: Stuff your crap.”
“Sue me, swine.”
“Melatonin, take :1-a deep breath 2-your Prozac 3- a flying leap”
“. . .you snotty little ass.”
. . .your crap about how my remarks support your asinine views–BULLSHIT!"
“. . .your pathetic , elitist garbage. . .” “Melatonin, you are a sorry piece of shit.”
“. . .the snarling, hissing snit of a spoiled little brat. Wipe the snot off your nose & grow up.”
“Mela-asshole. . .”
I made the OP. I know the issue; it addresses a number of different problems. That is what concerns me. You, however, seem to be obsessed with feces.
Why is that?
In response to dpb’s answer:
“There you go again Mela-asshole. Dragging in Public Broadcasting again. The subject is art funding, not public broadcasting.”
Does not PBS programs get some of their funding from the NEA. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “This program is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.” So PBS is involved in the debate.
Christine
dhanson wrote:
Well, that U.S.-to-metric SNAFU on the Mars weather observing probe was quite entertaining, that’s for sure.
It does bug me that only $5 of my tax money per year is going to unmanned space exploration (whence NASA gets most of its data) while close to $20 of my tax money per year goes into that damn space shuttle.
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
So now that’s Dole’s dropped out of the race do we get the original thread title back?