Well, I guess I can admit when I'm wrong.
The furor over arts cuts didn't give Mr. Harper a majority, it actually was one of the only things that prevented it.
The arts cuts equalled a resurgence of Bloc support in Quebec, which in turn prevented Harper of making his "breakthrough" in La Belle Province. In English Canada however, it was another story...
I'm not sure how I should feel about all this, and I imagine that a lot of other artists are similarly confused. After all, Harper still won, so I imagine the cuts will remain. And from what I hear, he's a pretty vindictive politician: if artists prevented his coveted majority, than I wonder (and fear) if artists will be subject to his subsequent wrath.
And I'm not sure how good anyone feels about the arts funding issue directly benefitting a party committed to breaking up the nation...
Are we to blame for this too?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
We're All Fools
Harper might win a majority by cutting arts funding... and we artists are helping him do it.
Don't ask me how I feel about Harper's cuts and his outrageous comments. I'm as hurt and and angry as the rest of you, but there are more important issues here than my feelings. Or yours.
As a political maneuver, this was brilliant. (er... diabolical?)
Harper had to deal with a couple of small problems: he was being attacked by all the party leaders on a number of issues and he needed to consolidate his base support while, at the same time, attract swing voters at the centre of the political spectrum.
Regionally, he was working long before the writ was dropped with massive pre-election spending in order to warm up the electorate. Conservatism at its most basic level (I thought) is against taxpayer's money being spent like this, especially on frivolities like a UFO sighting commemoration.
As the economy gets worse and worse during this campaign, he looks like he's doing his due duty in managing the economy by cutting "frivolous" arts funding. He tells artists that we have to "stick to a budget."
Now these cuts were made a while ago, but they didn't receive a lot of press. But we as artists must challenge them. Because we're constantly under attack. And the arts need to be defended. And so Quebec artists, bless them, use the Gemeaux awards to shame Harper and the ideology behind these cuts. But unfortunately, outside of Quebec, this plays right into Harper's hands.
He calls us "fat cats" and says we live in an "ivory tower." He says that the furor over these cuts won't resonate with "ordinary Canadians," i.e. regular folk that work hard for their money, not like them bum artists living on the taxpayer's dime, the worst kind of corporate welfare. (Ick.)
All of a sudden the arts (for the first time that I can remember) have become a major election story. Let me tell you why, in my opinion, this is not a good thing for artists.
What has been accomplished here? Let's take a look:
1) Harper has consolidated his core support. Even those who may have felt alienated by his concession on Afghanistan, can rally around on Harper on this issue. These cuts are ideological in nature and appeal to many of the same voters who support life sentences for children.
2) Harper hasn't lost any support from the centre spectrum voters; in fact, he may have gained some traction. Think about it: we're an electorate that is having trouble understanding the Green Shift. Trying to explain how cuts to programs that send artists overseas are a bad thing... is damn hard. Unfortunately, Harper's comments about artists being "whiners" is ringing true (at least in English Canada).
3) The left still remains split. While artists have succeeded making a lot of noise about the value of art, we've only been denouncing Harper and we haven't thrown our combined weight behind a different candidate that will champion the arts. And we, just like the rest of Canada, remain divided into camps of ideological or strategic voters.
4) The other major parties have jumped on the band wagon. As passionate as I am about the arts, the pragmatist in me knows that it won't win an election. So while this is a major election story, it's not an election issue. But all the other party leaders think they smell blood in the water, and at this point, are desperate for any conservative weakness that might have some traction. This is not it.
The two major election questions are the economy and Harper. He has made the election about these issues, and the more the other leaders are sidetracked away from them, the more this plays in his favour. Especially if they continue to be unified in their pro-arts, anti-Harper response... if there's no distinction, then there's no mending of the left-of-centre split.
Now I realize that Harper needs Quebec to form a majority, and yes, cutting Quebec arts funding IS actually a major election issue... in Quebec. But in BC and especially in Ontario, it's the economy stupid.
So what do we do about it?
1) Keep making noise... but be strategic. This election is about Harper. He's coming to us in a fuzzy sweater and trying to woo the centre by claiming he makes common sense decisions for the good of Canada. But THIS decision is steeped in ideology. Same as his crime bill. This is a pattern: what journalists like to call a narrative. (He's also being mean about it - another narrative). This is the narrative that we must promote: if he follows far-right ideology on the arts and crime, then what does this mean for health care? Education? WHAT WOULD HARPER DO WITH A MAJORITY??? (You get the idea.)
2) We have to back one of the other parties. Any one. But we have to consolidate our vote. This is a tremendous opportunity: the other leaders are listening. What can/will they do to consolidate our vote?
E-mail this post to every artist you know. There's still time...
~talbot
Don't ask me how I feel about Harper's cuts and his outrageous comments. I'm as hurt and and angry as the rest of you, but there are more important issues here than my feelings. Or yours.
As a political maneuver, this was brilliant. (er... diabolical?)
Harper had to deal with a couple of small problems: he was being attacked by all the party leaders on a number of issues and he needed to consolidate his base support while, at the same time, attract swing voters at the centre of the political spectrum.
Regionally, he was working long before the writ was dropped with massive pre-election spending in order to warm up the electorate. Conservatism at its most basic level (I thought) is against taxpayer's money being spent like this, especially on frivolities like a UFO sighting commemoration.
As the economy gets worse and worse during this campaign, he looks like he's doing his due duty in managing the economy by cutting "frivolous" arts funding. He tells artists that we have to "stick to a budget."
Now these cuts were made a while ago, but they didn't receive a lot of press. But we as artists must challenge them. Because we're constantly under attack. And the arts need to be defended. And so Quebec artists, bless them, use the Gemeaux awards to shame Harper and the ideology behind these cuts. But unfortunately, outside of Quebec, this plays right into Harper's hands.
He calls us "fat cats" and says we live in an "ivory tower." He says that the furor over these cuts won't resonate with "ordinary Canadians," i.e. regular folk that work hard for their money, not like them bum artists living on the taxpayer's dime, the worst kind of corporate welfare. (Ick.)
All of a sudden the arts (for the first time that I can remember) have become a major election story. Let me tell you why, in my opinion, this is not a good thing for artists.
What has been accomplished here? Let's take a look:
1) Harper has consolidated his core support. Even those who may have felt alienated by his concession on Afghanistan, can rally around on Harper on this issue. These cuts are ideological in nature and appeal to many of the same voters who support life sentences for children.
2) Harper hasn't lost any support from the centre spectrum voters; in fact, he may have gained some traction. Think about it: we're an electorate that is having trouble understanding the Green Shift. Trying to explain how cuts to programs that send artists overseas are a bad thing... is damn hard. Unfortunately, Harper's comments about artists being "whiners" is ringing true (at least in English Canada).
3) The left still remains split. While artists have succeeded making a lot of noise about the value of art, we've only been denouncing Harper and we haven't thrown our combined weight behind a different candidate that will champion the arts. And we, just like the rest of Canada, remain divided into camps of ideological or strategic voters.
4) The other major parties have jumped on the band wagon. As passionate as I am about the arts, the pragmatist in me knows that it won't win an election. So while this is a major election story, it's not an election issue. But all the other party leaders think they smell blood in the water, and at this point, are desperate for any conservative weakness that might have some traction. This is not it.
The two major election questions are the economy and Harper. He has made the election about these issues, and the more the other leaders are sidetracked away from them, the more this plays in his favour. Especially if they continue to be unified in their pro-arts, anti-Harper response... if there's no distinction, then there's no mending of the left-of-centre split.
Now I realize that Harper needs Quebec to form a majority, and yes, cutting Quebec arts funding IS actually a major election issue... in Quebec. But in BC and especially in Ontario, it's the economy stupid.
So what do we do about it?
1) Keep making noise... but be strategic. This election is about Harper. He's coming to us in a fuzzy sweater and trying to woo the centre by claiming he makes common sense decisions for the good of Canada. But THIS decision is steeped in ideology. Same as his crime bill. This is a pattern: what journalists like to call a narrative. (He's also being mean about it - another narrative). This is the narrative that we must promote: if he follows far-right ideology on the arts and crime, then what does this mean for health care? Education? WHAT WOULD HARPER DO WITH A MAJORITY??? (You get the idea.)
2) We have to back one of the other parties. Any one. But we have to consolidate our vote. This is a tremendous opportunity: the other leaders are listening. What can/will they do to consolidate our vote?
E-mail this post to every artist you know. There's still time...
~talbot
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Superhero LIVE! at the 2007 Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival.
Holy moley, it's been a long time since I've blogged!!!
I'm in Edmonton right now. I came to rehearse and produce my play Superhero LIVE! at the Edmonton Fringe this year. I arrived at midnight on August 1st, and was up early the next morning to do the Fringe Media Conference. We were one of only four groups (of 140) to perform at the conference. At that time I had less than two weeks to put this show together; now we are offically up and running (both the staged show and the radio series).
I guess I should mention what Superhero LIVE! is. It is a comic book spoken word rock opera. I wrote, produced and directed for the Fringe this year. Our executive producer is Happy Habor Comics: a nationally recognized, award-winning comic store in Edmonton. (They win awards because they sponsor stuff like this!) It's a two hour show performed against a original rock n roll score played by a live band; we're doing it at The Attic Bar & Lounge as a BYOV this year. I've been producing the play as a radio-play serial, online and free to download as Podcasts at http://www.superherolive.com. I booked a sponsorship deal with CJSR FM 88.5 to broadcast each episode of the serial everyday during the Fringe. Then on August 23, 2007, we're doing a live-to-air broadcast of the full-length play from the Fringe Festival. This has never been done at the Edmonton Fringe before.
Okay, so a big task. And like I said, we only had two weeks to pull it off. Luckily, most of the cast from the Podcasts had returned to do the live performance. Alison Boyce was new to our crew, but she has been a superstar and absolutely wonderful to work with.
We've been getting pretty good press coverage: we've been plugged on SONiC radio, City TV, the Edmonton Examiner, and of course CJSR.
The run is only beginning but all ready I have some wonderful memories of this experience. Most notably during the Fringe parade. Shaun's boss at K&K Deli let us use his truck and a generator so that Shaun and John could rock out on the flatbed. We were doing a spot for City TV so Shaun and John started playing: suddenly we were surrounded by a dozen dancing clowns from another show attracted by the kickin' tunes. It was amazing and totally surreal.
Only at the Fringe.
Now that we're open, I'll try to blog a bit more often. It was a real push to get this show up and running, and I didn't have a lot of time to devote to cyber-thoughts. Hopefully now I can be a little more visable during the rest of the festival.
See you in the beer tents???
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