Before getting to today’s links, today is unartistic Saturday.
Men are encouraged to dressed in ripped jeans and beat up sneakers. They are to only eat foods that require the use of hands, and finger foods do not count. Watch as much football as possible, whether it be the opening of college football (Go USC Trojans) or preseason NFL coverage.
The Tygrrrr Express is Tehachapi bound. Tehachapi is near Indian Wells, which is somewhere in the middle of nowhere in California. I am speaking to the Tehachapi Republican Women’s Federated at 4pm. I am the opening act for Chuck DeVore, who will helping Barbara Boxer with her mandatory retirement plan.
http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/ViewPost/107987
Assuming I actually find my way back to Los Angeles (I will have a rental car. My jalopy would never make it.), a Los Angeles Sunday will be followed by a Monday Labor Day trip to Stockton, which is also somewhere in California. I will be speaking at the South San Joaquin Republican meeting.
http://www.modbee.com/2123/story/292276-p2.html
Yet today I am thinking about some time I spent with the Sacramento Queen at the Palo Alto Arts Festival. I am not an arts festival type of guy. I do not have an artistic bone in my body, nor do I want one.
I am a hard charging, corporate, Type A Wall Street guy. Yet I saw something at an arts festival that forced me to take notes. One painting exhibit had words from the author.
“Imagination is stronger than knowledge.”
“Myths are more important than history.”
“Dreams are more powerful than facts.”
“Hope always triumphs over experience.”
“Laughter is the only cure for grief.”
“Love is stronger than death.”
These were described as the “Storyteller’s Creed.”
It was at this moment that an initially held belief of mine was reinforced.
I am now certain that I really detest artists.
The entire culture makes me ill.
“Imagination is stronger than knowledge.”
Yes, if one is five years old. If one is an adult, I don’t care what somebody thinks. I care what they know and what they do. Corporate America has been destroyed by everything from diversity to multiculturalism to sensitivity training to “new 21st century management.”
Corporate America should be about delivering the d@mn profits. We are slowly producing a nation of creative imbeciles. We have children that ace Arts and Crafts and Music but can’t do multiplication tables.
“Myths are more important than history.”
No, no, no, no, no.
Camelot is a myth. The entire Kennedy family is one big phony myth. Barack Obama is a myth. Myths are stories. I care about actual results.
The favorite myth in leftist circles are that Americans are a bunch of sexist, racist, homophobic pigs that oppress the rest of the world in pursuit of greed. The truth in conservative circles is that America is a nation of good people that feed, clothe, protect, and defend the world.
Only a leftist could prefer words to deeds. Only a leftist could prefer intentions to results.
“Hope always triumphs over experience.”
This particular artist most likely bathes in “Eau D’Obama Anus” Cologne.
In the 1960s the left said, “If it feels good, do it.” This brought us a generation of rambling drug addicts, and sexually transmitted diseases that have no cure.
Now, as conservatives are trying to save the world from terrorists who hijack planes and turn them into guns, the left responds with silly blather about “hope,” “change,” and “Yes we can.” These vacuous slogans accomplish nothing, mean nothing, and inspire people that find insipid rhetoric inspiring.
When Ronald Reagan ordered Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear Down This Wall,” it meant something only because the wall actually did fall. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was followed by actions. Slaves don’t get freed by burning incense and chanting “Yes, we can.”
The entire image of an artist makes me sick, especially the glorification of the “starving artist.”
Memo to startving artists: There is nthing noble about being poor. There is nothing romantic about being broke. Owning a private jet is more rewardeding than making art out of literal garbage that the poorest of the artists call dinner.
I will leave artists alone when they shut up and stop criticizing corporate America.
Yes, beauty can be found in individual works of art, and I am sure there are museums and art galleries that offer value. As a kid I liked the Dinosaur Exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.
What I can’t stand is the preachiness and pretentiousness of the art world.
Business is a necessity. Art is a luxury. Artists rail about the rich, all the while begging business people to sponsor them.
Forget the storyteller’s creed. I have my own creed.
“Go to school. Learn reading, writing and math. Learn about business. Get a job. Pay taxes. Balance a checkbook. Seek prosperity.”
Ben Affleck in “Boiler Room” put it brilliantly when he said that “People who say that money is the root of all evil don’t have any.”
Sure, there are some artists that do not inflict their entire world view and philosophy on society, but the majority of art festivals I have attended have been left wing drivel.
In the same way that the movie “History of the World Part I” had a depiction of the French Revolution where there were “beggars, begging from beggars,” too many art festivals have artists railing against the wealthy while pleading with those same wealthy people to buy their works of art. If it was not for guilty white liberals, I truly believe artists would be forced to apply for government aid.
Another “Boiler room line” applies here. “You think money won’t make you happy? Look at the f*cking smile on my face.”
In the same way not all poor struggling artists are anything more than a stereotype of misery, not all rich people are tormented. Most of them are happy. The more money I make, the happier I am. I am also significantly more handsome when making more money. At the peak of my earning power I am downright gorgeous.
The secret to life is so simple. It is not about wailing about inequities, and using pastels and paint brushes to convey suffering.
The secret to life is to find rich and powerful people and get them to like you. That’s it.
So to all the artists trying to feed themselves on hope and myths and dreams…learn about busines. Take a marketing class. Be a lemming. Conform. Be like everybody else.
You may not be happy, but you probably were not going to be happy anyway. At least my way puts food on the table.
eric
LOL! Well, no one can argue that you’re artsitic! That’s for sure! LOL! ;)
You completely misunderstand the “Storytellers Creed.” It is not a way of life opr a scientific understanding of the universe. It is simply a set of rules involving truths about the writing and telling of stories. And as a Republican, whether you know it or not, you employ these rules regularly. All Republicans do. So does everybody else, but Republicans just don’t know it.
“Imagination is stronger than knowledge.”
“If you look at FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama, this is really the final leap to socialism…” – Micele Bachmann
“Myths are more important than history.”
“Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face.” – Ronald Reagan
“Dreams are more powerful than facts.”
“Today marks a great great first step towards protecting Americans from illegal aliens and would be terrorists that look at our wide open southern border as their gateway into this country.” – Tom Tancredo, on the “Secure Fence Act of 2006”
“Hope always triumphs over experience.”
(see above quote again)
Whether you know it or not, the “Storytellers Creed” is simply a list of rhetorical devices that all people use and all the rules have some relativistic truth to them. Republican politicians and pundits use these devices all the time and Republican voters eat it up without question. But the Creed is not a list of fundamental realities. It was never meant to be. It simply a list rhetorical devices for the telling of stories – otherwise all we’d read are encyclopedias, text books and dictionaries… and we’d probably NEVER vote Republican. Get it?
JMJ
All we need to is distinguish the difference between the two kinds of artists that there are and then we can relax.
Theres the one that leaves it all up to chance ad then hopes in the end that his work appears interpretable into something be it a clear messageor something abstract with a real connection to somthing relative.
And then theers the guy who creates something with intention from the beggining becausehe knw what he wanted to say all along. Something of use, something functional, something that provokes a thought that hada home andwasnt dragged into the arena of acceptance hoping someone would bite. And thatswhat aloy of these narcissistic snotty little artist are doing is making a place dependent on their arrogance and conviction eing so deep no one darequestion it even if all he did was reach in his diaper and fingerpaint . Which my sisterusedto do all the time on the wall next to her crib.
One day it dawned on us all that she using her doo doo to paint pictures of toilets.
All that time she was clearly an artist with a message and purpose
As you can see I’m typing on my side with one finger again.
it has nothing to do with the 200 MGs of morphine they bumped me up to.
LOL.
(I ususlly dont do LOLs) It usually means one has nothing else to say
Art, like music, is a form of human expression.
But I have heard at least one movie producer, state that
the most perfect form of expression, is the movie. NO other medium
can be so inclusive of the human condition.
I would not want to catagorize art as leftist, or right. It can be both.
Hitler used paintings, and the movies…see “Triump of the Will” as
effective propaganda for his goals..to create a “New world order”,
without Jews or socialists, or, rich capitalists and a Germany
of supermen, blood hair, blue eyed, ordinary folks.
Hitler was a liberal fascist…he appealed to the “Volk” (people)
instincts in the ordinary man..their loves AND their hatreds, their
fears and jealousies, their hopes and fantasies.
We Jews do not have icons..or bow to statues or pictures of the
Divine., unlike other religions. We are not allowed, in our bible.
We do not revere kings or queens, or soothsayers.
Therefore, for 2,000 years, we have been victims.
The Arab world is continuously defaming the West and Israel
in particular, with vile pictures taken straight out of
a NAZI publication. Rabbis are shown with big hook noses..
sometimes with a circumcision knife..sometimes eating
unleavened bread drippng with (non-Jewish) blood.
So art, like human emotion..can be bland..pictures of streams and
trees, or it can be explosive, frightening, dangerous, having agendas.
It can show a tranquil country seen, or a forest fire (Bambi).
Recently, to the dismay of the Israeli government, Sweden refused to
condemn an article in their media relating how Israeli soldiers
killed and mutilated Palestinians, to use their organs for sale.
This is a perfect example of where art and the media can go terribly wrong. The author finally admitted that he was speculating..on the
possibility! Speculating? In the meantime, Sweden and Israel are not
talking.
I am reminded of a recent news program (PBS) which showed a
hauty Bibi Netanyahu beside their lettering on their screen
which repeated his reaction to the USA position of “growth” in the settlements and East Jerusalem (the US is demanding no additonal
contruction in order to move the peace process along and encourage
talks). This same station recently showed an Arab nursing home
adjacent to the Israeli “wall”. separting both sides and the inconveniences
posed on the residents. ( How come it didn’t show the inconveniences
on the familes that were shot at for years from across the divide, thus the nececessity of that wall (or fence)?
Now, I have seen hundreds of pictures of Bibi these past 20 years..
using this particular photo..is a great propaganda opportunity
for the liberal PBS station and their pro-Palis views.
Rarely, if ever, do they show the expressions on the part of the
Arab leadership, when discussing Palis-Israeli relations.
Again, I would not want to catagorize art…as liberal or conservative.
It, like the rest of us, has something to say..and often times the artists
use their artistic talents to achieve a goal.
The object for US is to see through the propaganda.
I agree, that the statements Eric posted say somthing about those
particular artists. But as a good friend of mine likes to say, ” No one
can disprove the belief in a fantasy”.
I’m sure 60m Germans, and 95 million Japanese, did not
think about the consequences of saluting Herr Hitler or Herr Tojo.
The reality of Pearl Harbor, the fire bombing of Japan, the two atomic
bombs and the day/night bombing of Germany, brought the reality
home.
Art can be a picture, or a sign on a Shihab Missile (Iran) saying,
“Death to Israel, Death to the US”.
To Ahmad’s supporters, it’s perspective…