I would argue that it <is> medicine to the degree
that it is perceived by
an audience member to be medicine. Your original
analogy of art=medicine
is a good one. And it's been said before. Some
people (those people many
artists are hoping to "reach" with their "work")
take the medicinal view.
Are they to be shunned simply because you and I
know that art needn't
necessarily <be> medicine?
My mother
kissed away scapes. That was medicine. A swami passed sage
over my aura.
The was medicine. My doctor has me on meds to help with a
recent health
problem. That's medicine. If I have a cough and I can't
sleep I'll knock
back some icky cherry stuff from over the counter. I
believe it will work
and it does.
And yet,when people think of medicine--they don't
think of kisses and sweet cherry cough syrup. They think of shots and
surgery and other scary things.
Also, my point is that
the only audience ISN'T in the suburbs, but everyone seems to act
that way.
> There are 1/3 of a million people in the city
proper and very little of what's offered here seems to be
geared toward them. THAT'S my complaint.
Sounds like a void that
needs filling? Are you filling it?
Working on it. Most of my work comes out
of my experiences in the city and is geared towards that. However, I am
one person with a small group and a teeny amount of money. As an
audience member, my money certainly goes to the groups that are also
trying to fill it.
> Yes, I DID choose to live here,
and when I came, it did appear to be a
> vibrant urban
area. But the people who run things here don't seem to see it
>
that way.
This is victimized thinking. The "they" theory.
What are you doing to
change it?
No, it isn't victimized thinking. It's
reality. Almost every funky little coffee shop or restaurant in the
downtown area has been pushed out for $50 a meal restaurants with valet
parking that sit on the ground floor of brand new skyscrapers. Whenever
a building goes up in downtown Minneapolis there are the requisite questions
about whether or not there is enough parking for the people coming in from the
suburbs and can we attract those people to downtown. There is little
public discussion about how downtown can serve the people who live in the
city. And friends from other cities tell me that the same conversations
are going on in their areas as well. Gentrification is NOT victimized
thinking. It is a very real situation, and it has an impact on the arts
as well as on the neighborhoods.
And Yes--I just spent two months fighting to keep my
inner city bus route from being savaged, for example. I spend the better
part of my life banging my head against that wall.
It's very easy for artists to take the
fucktheaudience-THEYareouttogetme-bigtheatreBADsmalltheatreGOOD-financial
poverty=artisticintegrity train and not know when to get the hell off.
(This is <not> directed at you, Laura, but just general ya-ya.) But
what
passes for charming and romantic in our twenties pales into pathetic
and
useless in our later years. I've seen many a young, vibrant,
gifted,
radical artist turn into a ranting, angry, desperate, older artist
who
throws rocks at planes and curses the gods for making his throw so
weak,
simply because they were not able or willing to accept the stupidity
that
surrounds them (humanity) as a given and make it work <for> the
artist.
I agree. And yet, it's very frustrating.
And to me, it's edifying to have a forum like this, where there are like
minded people to shore us up as we have to go back out there everyday and do
what we do.
I've had this conversation with people about
protests/demonstrations. It's my contention that those things are not so much
for the general public as they are for the activists--to "rally the troops" so
to speak--make you feel less alone and give you a place to blow off steam,
talk about issues, etc. Am I only the one here who gets weary from being
made to feel like a freak out in the day to day world? I'm not just talking
about my art here--I'm talking about an entire world view. I DO feel
beaten down by what I see in the mainstream media, on the news, etc. I
would feel this way even if I didn't write or perform. Those
worlds may be the only refuge--the place where I actually feel normal
occasionally. For every burned out artist I've seen, I've seen many
more who couldn't hack it at all and walked away altogether into a day job,
giving up what they loved because they couldn't face this feeling every day of
their lives.
I want to find out how to take what is charming and
romantic in our twenties and make it still workable in our 30s and beyond. How
do you retain your sense of idealism, your notions about how the world should
work, knowing what you've come to know about the world? If there is
REALLY no place for that as an adult, then how fucking sorry are our lives
anyway?
It doesn't help that the assholes <do> seem to
be in control and <do>
seem to make all the big decisions that affect
the less influential
artists. It's up to us to keep making the art that
shames them into
recognizing their own shortcomings and responsibly points
out a few ways
in which they can improve the world.
Keep making art
responsibly.
That'll show 'em.
Good
luck
Jonathan
>