Overnight Open Thread 8/18/2015 (tmi3rd)

Good evening, everyone... running a little late this evening. Let's get to it...

More below the fold...

Axl's kinda let himself go... he looks suspiciously like this guy, now...

How Art Became Irrelevant

For a generation or more, the American public has been thoroughly alienated from the life of the fine arts while, paradoxically, continuing to enjoy museums for the sake of sensation and spectacle, much as it enjoyed circuses a century ago. The public accepts that it has nothing important to say about who we are, though it does occasionally rouse itself when something is at stake that does reflect our collective values. When Daniel Libeskind proposed rebuilding the World Trade Center in the academically fashionable deconstructivist style, the public outcry resulted in his being replaced and the construction of a sober and dignified tower. A similar outcry has delayed the building of Frank Gehry’s perversely anti-heroic memorial to Dwight D. Eisenhower, which might yet be realized (never underestimate the power of bureaucratic stealth). But these are exceptions to the pattern of a dormant and indifferent public.

This estrangement has been a disaster for the arts, which need to draw inspiration from the society and culture that is its substrate. It is a myth that an art withdrawn from the realm of public inspection and disapproval is a freer and superior art. The impulse to evade censure can inspire raptures of ingenuity. (The passage of the prim Hays Code in 1932, which led to four decades of censorship in Hollywood, increased the sophistication and wit of American films by a magnitude.) We hear much about art enriching the human experience, which is an agreeable platitude. But it is the other way round. The human experience is needed to enrich art, and without a meaningful living connection to the society that nurtures it, art is a plucked flower.

I'd add something to this from the performance perspective- there aren't a whole lot of new works out there that create new heroes for us to get behind and define childhoods by (does anyone really think of Ana and Elsa as the Luke Skywalker or Han Solo of this generation?). So much of new productions of operas, musicals, movies, et cetera, are aimed at showing us what an evil country the United States is, as opposed to giving us people who are without question the Good Guys.

My Choice For Tweet Of The Day

The day SWAT teams arrive to take her, & they will, Hillary will retaliate in a shootout that makes the end of Scarface look like Candyland

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 18, 2015

THAT'S gonna leave a mark...

...And Tonight's Music Selection...

Eric Johnson is one of the most delightful people I've ever met in the business. Couldn't be nicer, or more thoughtful, and MY GOD, can the man play and write. This is my favorite tune by him.

Light content night- y'all have fun!

As ever, if you need to get a hold of me, you can always find me on Twitter.

Thanks for reading!

-tmi3rd

posted by Open Blogger at 10:38 PM

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