Nice job, Jen. I care, and so does everyone who was watching in 1989. I'm not interested in a witchhunt of Orr-Cahill, and neither is anyone else; I just want to hear her admit some culpability.
Jen Graves, thank you for writing this. I enjoyed reading it. The part about censoring one piece compared to a whole show really put things in perspective for me.
Yay for no witchhunt - after all, that's what the Corcoran helped the fundies do, and see how well that turned out - but it's a fascinating story. Thanks for staying on it so diligently.
It's more than a little cheering to see the slide from the Corcoran to the (yawn) Norton to the (yeesh) EMP/SFM&HF.
Thanks for this, Jen. Living over here in the land of PC can get a bit challenging for the avant garde. Did you hear about our little porn fiasco this week? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…
This would be much easier to read if it had fewer bold characters. You and the Stranger staff should have a meeting to discuss the overuse of bold. That much bold usually means that the other capacities of language — such as accuracy, concision, clarity — are not functioning well enough, so you need the help of bold.
The political echos of Orr-Cahall's surrender are still reverberating. The banning was an inflection point in the artistic culture of the U.S., as the conservative backlash against the post-war trend toward greater sexual liberality reached full tide for the first time.
It's frustrating she hasn't been willing to speak openly and at length on what happened then. There is, it seems, an aura of personal shame and guilt which builds up around her in her silence which is projection, doubtless, but also of no use in understanding that moment in history. She would have much to offer everyone by publically owning those events, even guiding our collective grasp of them through her own words and experiences.
Did I read that the mapplethorpe was projected on the building at night? Since when is art being shoved in people's faces an issue for only "the right?"
It's not a surprise that someone like Orr-Cahill is next in the swinging-door lineup of CEOs. That's what happens when you put Josi Callan in charge of hiring her replacement: She picks a person like herself, who doesn't understand either music or science fiction, but thinks it would be "fun" to dabble.
Josi took a bloated salary just like she did at the Museum of Glass to run the place into the ground and make life a living hell for the people who worked for her. There was no oversight from any kind of board, and she turned that place into the Madness of King George (or, if he had been more involved, King Paul). The P-I and Times posted puff pieces on her, and treated her like someone who might have known something, instead of the ridiculous fraud that she is. I'm glad the Stranger at least is willing to see through the PR.
I feel sorry for the people who work there and try to do good work under absurd circumstances brought about by an insane has-been...or, like her upcoming replacement, never-was. Josi Callan is a horrible person, and her final treacherous act was picking someone equally ridiculous to carry her torch.
Hi Jen. I didn't write the story. You did. I was responding to your post with questions it left, which you have now answered. In full. Well done. Regina
It's more than a little cheering to see the slide from the Corcoran to the (yawn) Norton to the (yeesh) EMP/SFM&HF.
It's frustrating she hasn't been willing to speak openly and at length on what happened then. There is, it seems, an aura of personal shame and guilt which builds up around her in her silence which is projection, doubtless, but also of no use in understanding that moment in history. She would have much to offer everyone by publically owning those events, even guiding our collective grasp of them through her own words and experiences.
Perhaps, in time, she will speak. I hope so.
....and then washed everyone out to sea in the AIDS epidemic.
Poor mapplethorpe.
Still, while I'm throwing down praise, I'll still be fair that the rest of the normal art posts just don't do it for me.
But I think this type of reporting is getting me more interesting in the world of art.
Frankly, I feel like I'm simply not smart enough to get art in the way you get art. Is it possible to make art easy for people like me? I don't know.
But if any reporter can do it, I have faith it's you.
But does anybody think his work was any damn good? If so...why?
It's not a surprise that someone like Orr-Cahill is next in the swinging-door lineup of CEOs. That's what happens when you put Josi Callan in charge of hiring her replacement: She picks a person like herself, who doesn't understand either music or science fiction, but thinks it would be "fun" to dabble.
Josi took a bloated salary just like she did at the Museum of Glass to run the place into the ground and make life a living hell for the people who worked for her. There was no oversight from any kind of board, and she turned that place into the Madness of King George (or, if he had been more involved, King Paul). The P-I and Times posted puff pieces on her, and treated her like someone who might have known something, instead of the ridiculous fraud that she is. I'm glad the Stranger at least is willing to see through the PR.
I feel sorry for the people who work there and try to do good work under absurd circumstances brought about by an insane has-been...or, like her upcoming replacement, never-was. Josi Callan is a horrible person, and her final treacherous act was picking someone equally ridiculous to carry her torch.