BY BEN WINTERS
 |
We’ve
got a very pointedly political “ArtsLine” this time around,
and why not? These are pointedly political times, and we in the arts world
are always wise to pay attention to the discourse of the politicians,
however much they ignore us. You may have noticed, for example, that in
his third State of the Union address, President George W. Bush did not
spend any time discussing the health of the cultural life of the country—although
he did find time to discourage steroid use, urge modernization of our
national electricity system, and individually thank all the other countries
in the coalition against terrorism.
Though
primary season is just beginning, some earnest musicians have already
gotten caught up in the excitement of the 2004 presidential campaign.
According to MTV News, Howard Dean’s “gruff, fist-pumping”
concession speech after the Iowa caucus (the “I have a scream”
speech) has “made its way onto the Internet, where inventive and
aspiring remixers have added their own sardonic twists to the fiery speech.”
MTV
details all the versions, enough to justify a new genre classification
at Sam Goody. Most are set to familiar tunes; “[w]ith many pundits
speculating that Dean’s campaign has gone off the rails,”
for example, “it’s no surprise that a remix with Ozzy Osbourne’s
'Crazy Train’ has…made its way onto the Web. Other remixes
include Dean paired with Guns N’ Roses’ 'Welcome to
the Jungle’’ and Lil Jon’s 'Throw It Up.’”
It’s
certainly hard to pick a favorite, although I’m leaning towards
the “metal band Viral Solstice [who] made their own hardcore punk
tweak, 'Hardcoredean.’” But the popular vote seems to
be for “Dean Goes Nuts Remix” which, according to the BBC
news, “proved so popular on [a] college magazine’s Web site
that it is no longer available because of bandwidth limits.”
On
a more serious note, the Beeb adds that “observers say the exclamation
may harm Mr. Dean’s chances of becoming the party nominee,”
although “web pages have been overloaded by demand for the tracks.”
His
campaign may be tanking, but Howard Dean’s celebrity on the dance
floor is just getting started.
SUPER
LAME
In
other campaign 2004 news—the liberal, Web-based political organization
MoveOn.org hosted a huge contest to design an anti-Bush ad to run during
the Super Bowl. The so-called BushIn30Seconds.org contest was touted all
over the Internet, garnered over 1500 entries, and generated a tempest
of controversy when a couple of the ads seemed to compare the President
to Hitler.
Now
CBS is refusing to show the winner during the Super Bowl. It was reported
thusly on MediaChannel: “CBS on [Jan. 22] rejected a request from
MoveOn to air the 30-second spot, “Child’s Pay” saying
it violated the network’s policy against accepting advocacy advertising,
a company spokesperson told reporters.”
The
spot, by amateur filmmaker Charlie Fisher, shows sweet-faced little children
doing blue collar jobs to illustrate who will be paying off the trillion-dollar
debts created by the Bush tax cuts. CBS rejected another ad for Super
Bowl play, this one from the animal rights zealots at PETA, whose spot
suggested—in the raciest possible fashion—that vegetarians
are better in the sack.
(PETA’s
activists are often quite artful in their satirical protests. A young
woman was recently described in the Tennessean as hating the circus so
much that, “wearing fuzzy ears [and with] her body painted to resemble
a tiger, clothed only in black underwear and strategically placed pasties,
knelt in a small wire cage…in Nashville’s downtown riverfront.”)
A CBS
spokesman said the PETA ad “raise significant taste concerns.”
Media observers at various outlets said that CBS’s rejection of
the ads raises some very different concerns.
“CBS
has rejected Super Bowl advertisements from two groups, saying the ads
violated its advocacy rules,” wrote Jim Rutenberg in the New York
Times. “At the same time, the network has in the past and could
again accept spots from the White House’s anti-drug office, raising
questions about what is acceptable and what is not, and why.” Due
respect to Rutenberg, but the situation doesn’t really raise questions,
it gives an answer—that answer is, we’ll run whatever ads
we feel like.
PETA,
for its part, expressed what might be sarcastic surprise at CBS’s
decision. “Our ad has all three of advertising’s most popular
elements—sex, humor, and animals,” said a PETA spokesman to
CNN, “So the network should jump on it.”
SADDAM
HUSSEIN MUSICAL FORTHCOMING?
This
is either going to be a total smash hit or one of those things people
are still making jokes about 30 years from now. “A California theatre
company is being deluged with e-mails and calls from people who oppose
its planned musical drama about Andrew Cunanan, the killer of fashion
designer Gianni Versace and Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin.”
That’s from Noaki Schwartz’s article in the Tribune newspapers,
which also notes that the La Jolla Playhouse received a $35,000 NEA grant
for the production, currently titled Disposable.
Its
themes, says LJP artistic director Shirley Fishman, will include (get
ready for some new and exciting, never-before-explored themes!) “issues
in our contemporary society like class difference, the media’s obsession
with celebrity, wealth and fame, and the media’s penchant for sensationalism.”
(Now,
if the media really had a penchant for sensationalism, it would run PETA’s
dirty ad.)
In
a classic case of making sure the thing you hate sells a ton of tickets,
gay activists are already giving the show a lot of angry attention. Bill
Peters in Fort Lauderdale vents his outrage to the Associated Press: “Cunanan
was sick and do you celebrate that? People’s lives were gone and
do you celebrate that?”
The
AP and other sources also ran a quote from one Delfin Labao, “who
called himself a family friend and Cunanan’s godfather.” “No,
no it’s not a good idea,” Labao says. “[T]hat door is
closed. It should remain closed.”
So does he object to any discussion of his psychotic serial-killing godson, or just musical versions?