Posted by pancho from pool0262.cvx25-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.217.7) on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 at 2:09PM :
In Reply to: Editorial Note posted by Jeff from d53-106-196.try.wideopenwest.com (64.53.196.106) on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 at 1:41PM :
preceded and followed by none other than Mr. Odisho, poetry and all
++++Are you telling us that Alphonse took his show on the ROAD???
+++The mind boggles. The same people who tell you how important Art and Culture is...degrade and denigrate them. All art means to them is the excuse it provides for them to stand up in front of you...when none of us would show up to listen to anything they had to say. Everything about these leaders is borrowed...none of it earned.
+++When I met Jackie at the Doubletalk Hotel to pick a site for the sculpture display...she casually let drop that she had some fabric in mind and maybe I'd want to drape it round the pedestal of each piece. It isn't easy to keep a straight face...the subtext was, "look...I bought several pieces of those things you make, the least you can do is give me a chance to show off a little SKILL". I declined...and soon after declined...when I declined some more.
A fellow here who also bought several thousand bucks worth said to me once...with great sincerity, "Fred (my name), we want to help you achieve your lofty goals...tells what we can do to help...what do you need from those of us who understand the importance of these things?
Now, I was supposed to say something like..."Well golly gee whiz, I'm glad you asked because I'm sort of lost...can you direct me"?
No one in Assyria can tolerate simple truth. I said all I needed was his money. He was aghast...because it was true. I'm open to suggestions, if they're any good. But I know full well what to do...I just don't have the money to pay for monuments unless I sell enough models of them.
It was true...all I needed from these people was their money...for which I returned good value...a model of a public monument...their name in public forever...an Assyrian monument that would last as long as America did and do us, our kids especially, some unspecified good...maybe. All for about the price of a modest house in Idaho.
People are used to calling the shots when they pay...but it ruins Art. You can buy kitchen cabinets that way. Put those on a pedestal and drape fabric over them...where's the harm. We aren't going anywhere...who's gonna know.
-- pancho
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