Saturday, June 07, 2003
Post Modernism
I went to Bilboa, Spain to see the Gugenheim Museum there and prepared my expectations by trying to eliminate them. I wanted to see it with an open mind. I wanted to see if it appealed on any relevant level.
It did not. It fits into the Bilboan scenery like an ink spatter on a diploma or a hairy wart on the nose of a beautiful girl. Geary's "Tinfoil Disaster" is the manifestation of the concept of "post modern". The architectural equivalent to a shock jock or a Marily Manson or that German "artist" (who will remain nameless) that takes photos of piles of shit in beautiful places.
With a few notable examples (Kandinsky IS the real deal, for instance), the contents of the museum were about as appealing as the building. The aforementioned "artist" did a special exhibit for the museum prior to his blessed passing as a result of AIDS on the consequence of pushing at least 10 tons of brown clay through a plastic pipe. The 2 meter tall pile of shit, dubiously labeled as art, takes up a scandalous amount of floor space.
The best interview of a musician I ever read was actually quite recent and it was in the ECONOMIST of all places. It was an article about Wynton Marsalis and one Marsalis quote in particular just burns a hole in my mind about art generally and the whole concept of "Post Modern", where a style of expression is past it's point of maximum influence and evolves into a cliche or parody of itself by those insatiable Next New Thing art fags. He said that most burgeoning musicians seek alternate expressions - in the article he referenced "jazz fusion", a particularly loathed sub-genre - not because traditional jazz failed to be a perfect venue of expression, but because they could not equal the genius of the Old Masters. Ego then, was their motivation for deconstrutionist and derivative sub-genres. Wow.
Naked arrogance? Immodesty? Naivete? Perhaps, but it has such a ring of truth to it that when I read it it was like a putting the last piece of the puzzle into place.
When Geary took his obligatory tour de Europe after school to look at the masterpieces of architecture that are EVERYWHERE in Europe, he must have felt as intimidated as *I* do by the sort of bona fide artists that designed them. Imitation is the essence of derivative art, and if you can't compete on center court, just tell all the insecure art fags that the court you CAN compete on IS center court where you can strut about as the cock o' the walk, right?
Today the only way to sate the ego amongst the pretenders is to come up with some new, clever way to offend. To shock and disturb is the mantra, as if that were the cardinal virtue to which to aspire. Note; "inspire" and "shock" are not mutually inclusive. I suppose I should give a pass to those that use art as an unappologetic commercial venture. Hey, if it sells, why not? But then their motivations are not ego, but self enrichment. A motivation with which I'm sure we can all identify. Hmmm... greed or ego.
I went to Bilboa, Spain to see the Gugenheim Museum there and prepared my expectations by trying to eliminate them. I wanted to see it with an open mind. I wanted to see if it appealed on any relevant level.
It did not. It fits into the Bilboan scenery like an ink spatter on a diploma or a hairy wart on the nose of a beautiful girl. Geary's "Tinfoil Disaster" is the manifestation of the concept of "post modern". The architectural equivalent to a shock jock or a Marily Manson or that German "artist" (who will remain nameless) that takes photos of piles of shit in beautiful places.
With a few notable examples (Kandinsky IS the real deal, for instance), the contents of the museum were about as appealing as the building. The aforementioned "artist" did a special exhibit for the museum prior to his blessed passing as a result of AIDS on the consequence of pushing at least 10 tons of brown clay through a plastic pipe. The 2 meter tall pile of shit, dubiously labeled as art, takes up a scandalous amount of floor space.
The best interview of a musician I ever read was actually quite recent and it was in the ECONOMIST of all places. It was an article about Wynton Marsalis and one Marsalis quote in particular just burns a hole in my mind about art generally and the whole concept of "Post Modern", where a style of expression is past it's point of maximum influence and evolves into a cliche or parody of itself by those insatiable Next New Thing art fags. He said that most burgeoning musicians seek alternate expressions - in the article he referenced "jazz fusion", a particularly loathed sub-genre - not because traditional jazz failed to be a perfect venue of expression, but because they could not equal the genius of the Old Masters. Ego then, was their motivation for deconstrutionist and derivative sub-genres. Wow.
Naked arrogance? Immodesty? Naivete? Perhaps, but it has such a ring of truth to it that when I read it it was like a putting the last piece of the puzzle into place.
When Geary took his obligatory tour de Europe after school to look at the masterpieces of architecture that are EVERYWHERE in Europe, he must have felt as intimidated as *I* do by the sort of bona fide artists that designed them. Imitation is the essence of derivative art, and if you can't compete on center court, just tell all the insecure art fags that the court you CAN compete on IS center court where you can strut about as the cock o' the walk, right?
Today the only way to sate the ego amongst the pretenders is to come up with some new, clever way to offend. To shock and disturb is the mantra, as if that were the cardinal virtue to which to aspire. Note; "inspire" and "shock" are not mutually inclusive. I suppose I should give a pass to those that use art as an unappologetic commercial venture. Hey, if it sells, why not? But then their motivations are not ego, but self enrichment. A motivation with which I'm sure we can all identify. Hmmm... greed or ego.
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Told Ya So!
Like anyone else, I too like the feeling of deserved vindication when our opinion is bourne out counter to the expectations of others. In this case I am referring to the social upheaval in Europe and their unrealistic welfare system. On May 13th (dubbed "Black Tuesday" in France) there were nation-wide strikes in France to protest the proposal to alter the pension plans for the French. The proposal included reduced benefits and a longer work life before qualification for the benefits. As is typical for the French, they struck. Everywhere. Now they've done it again (June 3rd) and this time most of Western and Central Europe was involved. Look here for details.
Western Europeans just can not fathom the idea that entitlements are a function of the economic capability of a country to supply them. If the money dries up, well.... so do the entitlements. The bitter reality of the demographic inversion that most of Europe is undergoing and the American subsidies that financially propped up the continent from '45 to '91 have petered out and no amount of wishful thinking is going to alter that fact.
Go ahead, strike. No, don't stop there, shout at the tops of your voices! Let the government feel your frustration that you've worked all your life in anticipation of a well deserved respite from toil in a chateau on the Med. See how much wealth that tactic succeeds in creating and how effective that tactic is in achieving your ends.
Striking and marching with signs and slogans and songs of oppression may make you feel a sense of solidarity in your opposition to the Man, but you will none-the-less have to face the fact of reduction in the entitlements that you've come to expect as a fundamental right.
My friends here not only don't acknowledge that reduced revenues must translate into reduced expenditures in the long term, they are very reluctant to even DISCUSS the subject. Goverment really is a black box to them. They don't seem to see a correlation between their lifestyles and the cost of that lifestyle. I've warned them that this would happen and been answered with eyes rolling up in their heads and dismissive gestures. They are much, much more comfortable with a Big Brother, paternal relationship with their goverment than I. They've depended on it for so long that an alternative is literally incomprehensible.
Still the reality hasn't sunk in with just about ANYONE here, even those that I consider economically cognizant.
I don't know where this will end, but I do know how it will get there. The slow, tired steam engine of the European economy will grind to a stop and then slowly retreat.
Like anyone else, I too like the feeling of deserved vindication when our opinion is bourne out counter to the expectations of others. In this case I am referring to the social upheaval in Europe and their unrealistic welfare system. On May 13th (dubbed "Black Tuesday" in France) there were nation-wide strikes in France to protest the proposal to alter the pension plans for the French. The proposal included reduced benefits and a longer work life before qualification for the benefits. As is typical for the French, they struck. Everywhere. Now they've done it again (June 3rd) and this time most of Western and Central Europe was involved. Look here for details.
Western Europeans just can not fathom the idea that entitlements are a function of the economic capability of a country to supply them. If the money dries up, well.... so do the entitlements. The bitter reality of the demographic inversion that most of Europe is undergoing and the American subsidies that financially propped up the continent from '45 to '91 have petered out and no amount of wishful thinking is going to alter that fact.
Go ahead, strike. No, don't stop there, shout at the tops of your voices! Let the government feel your frustration that you've worked all your life in anticipation of a well deserved respite from toil in a chateau on the Med. See how much wealth that tactic succeeds in creating and how effective that tactic is in achieving your ends.
Striking and marching with signs and slogans and songs of oppression may make you feel a sense of solidarity in your opposition to the Man, but you will none-the-less have to face the fact of reduction in the entitlements that you've come to expect as a fundamental right.
My friends here not only don't acknowledge that reduced revenues must translate into reduced expenditures in the long term, they are very reluctant to even DISCUSS the subject. Goverment really is a black box to them. They don't seem to see a correlation between their lifestyles and the cost of that lifestyle. I've warned them that this would happen and been answered with eyes rolling up in their heads and dismissive gestures. They are much, much more comfortable with a Big Brother, paternal relationship with their goverment than I. They've depended on it for so long that an alternative is literally incomprehensible.
Still the reality hasn't sunk in with just about ANYONE here, even those that I consider economically cognizant.
I don't know where this will end, but I do know how it will get there. The slow, tired steam engine of the European economy will grind to a stop and then slowly retreat.
