May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here. -- Ronald Reagan

Thursday, July 30, 2009

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Get Stimulus Money to Stimulate

Ah yes, the stimulus package, Porkulas I. Supposed to stimulate the economy, which it hasn't; but part of the money is going to stimulate something. It's going to support "Thundercrack! "the world's only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla." Of course the "gay and lesbian film house," which showed "Thundercrack!" will get some stimulus bucks. Gotta support the "arts" don't ya know.

There is money going to support museums, orchestras, and the like; but tell me again how even this gins up the American Economic Engine? They are producing what, or providing what service?

Let's see, how else can we jump start the economy (six months later with no results so far)? Ah, here you go; San Francisco's CounterPULSE, has a "long-running pansexual performance series", and they invite you to "join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun." The name of this rollicking fun time, supported by printed or borrowed tax money, is called "Perverts Put Out".

NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter: "Our review process is very comprehensive — we take great care with applicants and with grantees." "It's a thorough, rigorous process that they all go through, and we're proud of the projects that we've been able to support."

So lets all take our kids to see the government supported "The Symmetry Project", which apparently Ms Hutter approves of, of a dance piece by choreographer Jess Curtis. The show depicts "the sharing of a central axis, [as] spine, mouth, genitals, face, and anus reveal their interconnectedness and centrality in embodied experience." I even have a hard time reading that!

I guess in the name of consistency this would be a parenting suggestion from a “well-trained and competent staff” member visiting your home under Section 440 of the ObamaCare bill. Maybe the competent staff member can get you a free pass to "The Symmetry Project"! It's government sponsored, just like the government visitors to your home to ensure you are using the latest cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains…modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices; [and] skills to raise your child.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

FOX news has everyone duped. Check it out:
from http://alibi-shop.livejournal.com/161799.html

"naked gay California hippies are taking your money" [Jul. 31st, 2009|04:45 pm]


Fake right-wing decency outrage is nothing new, but I can't help taking this latest Fox News hootenanny more personally because I live in San Francisco and know some of the people involved. The problem here isn't just that the Fox journalites(*) are being hypocritical, since the Bush administration had no problem giving money to some of the same groups, etc. The problem is also that they got all the facts wrong, like really really really very wrong, either because they are dumb, or they're counting on their audience to be dumb, or they just don't care.

1. Frameline is not a "film house", or a movie production company. It's a foundation that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender filmmakers through grants, distribution, and (most visibly) an annual international film festival that's quite a big deal. Since this is San Francisco, it's not a huge surprise when they throw in a revival showing of something raunchy like Thundercrack!, a no-budget cult movie from 1975 which one of these Fox chuckleheads seems to think is (a) new and (b) made by Frameline (c) on the government dime. To understand how bogus that description is, there's no need to be up to date on GLBT film history; reading the brochure for the festival or looking at their website would do just fine.

2. Perverts Put Out! is not a party(!) or a "nude sex dance" show (!!) (**) or a "web company" (!?). It's a reading. Writers stand in front of a microphone and read stories and poems. They're usually pretty dirty, and usually pretty funny. They don't get money from the government; CounterPulse, which provides the theater where they perform, does get money from the government but PPO doesn't get money from the theater either. They rent the place and give money to the theater -- it's a benefit. The more people buy tickets to see these writers tell dirty stories (for no pay), the less money the theater needs from other sources. If PPO were actually put on once a week (as the Fox chuckleheads claim), rather than every few months, and if 5,000 people went to see it instead of 50, CounterPulse might be entirely self-supporting -- or even give some money back to the government, so it could finally get that nice gun it's been saving up for!

(Note to Fox chucklehead who wonders, but doesn't really want to know, what "pansexual" means: it means they include writers with all kinds of sexual orientations. I realize it's no accident that the outrage-of-the-moment is all about The Gay, but you might be even more horrified to realize that there are straight people mixed up in these doings too.)

This kind of stuff would take about 10 seconds to find out on the Internet. Unfortunately, the speed of bullshit is hard to measure; it may even be infinite. Tune in next week for an ABC Special Report on how "some say" the infamous Pervline Partyhouse is spending all our stimulus money to make Internet gorilla porn.

(* journalist:journalite :: socialist:socialite)
(** Confidential to Greta van Susteren: You sound awfully eager to check out some of those things -- the nervous laughter speaks volumes. Let me know if you'd like an invite.)