4% of U.S. GDP.

Right on.

Annual American military budget = $400 billion.

Though too, via Michael Barone’s blog, the indications noted above are reconfirmed, re the MSM here and re the emerging Iraqi army here.

I, too, question why so many artists, ie writers, painters, actors, are left-leaning towards the road to serfdom when that ideology is the very thing which destroys creative expression.

I have devoted the past decade to theater and acting here in NYC but now I see that I exist in a state of complete frustration (downright disgust) with the vicious groupthink mentality which prevails in the artistic community. I can no longer identify with what is now hollow theater controlled by self-absorbed vulgar artists. Perhaps the artist has been for so long idolized by the audience they now believe themselves superior to the audience and feel obliged to ridicule and mock with vulgar insanity those they can emotionally manipulate. Most actors are so hungry for stardom they will abandon any sense of humanity in order to achieve such worthless notoriety, they’ll just follow along no matter how revolting is the message, the cause or belief.

After my own self-reflection into what I was involved with I had no choice but to leave that scene. I haven’t abandoned my innate desire to create, I abandoned those who tried to maintain absolute control over creativity.

It’s a shame.

Go figure…

Actually, I’ve never seen Pinter’s “Betrayal”, nor any other Pinter play, nor am I now inclined to do so.

But Pinter’s contribution to Seinfeldian humor should justify the Prize.

BTW, I didn’t realize until someone told me afterwards that the Seinfeld episode got the backwards-running idea from a Pinter play. Then, over the years, as I’ve watched that episode several times in reruns, I’ve picked up more Pinteresque references, i.e., Elain’s Indian ex-boyfriend’s name was Pinter, and the name of the episode itself. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

Oh well, after all, this year is (once again) the Year of the Inappropriate Nobel Prize Recipients, isn’t it. I mean, how funny is it that ElBaradei and the IAEA wins the Peace prize, after both N.K. and Iraq were bomb-making right under their noses…. One might say, in a post-Katerinesque manner, “Mo’, you’re doin’ a heck of a job!”

Best regards,
SteveR

Your next project is to not laugh at a poetry reading while going with someone else who also knows it’s tripe. Much harder, but I wish you luck.

Yes, a good portion of contemporary poetry is not much above the stuff written over unrinals in men’s rooms. Not much like T.S. Eliot. But there still are “real” poets around–try Wilbur, Ashbury, Merrill or Donald Hall. But I’m not optimistic. As in other areas of our culture, the lowest common denominator–read: junk–will win out.
Back to to Yeats, then, laddies and lassies.

I find it funny how artists consider themselves to be so individualistic and original but then have the exact same political beliefs on everything.

I consider myself to be somewhat artistic, but if would be so nice to find other artists who don’t make me laugh. They make me laugh even when I think they’re really good at what they do.

For now, I’l just remain proud that I went to a poetry reading in Chigago and refrained from laughter the entire time; it was one of the greatest challenges I’ve ever faced.

Poetry used to mean Chaucer and Shakespeare, now it’s about wailing and associating the Pres and VP’s names with genitalia. I guess I’m just too shallow to get it.

I was a 1971-75 Theater major. I can smell it at 50 meters.

Just a humble request (that may have already been granted for all I know–I’m new here).

Also, OT (excepting the caliphate of the Left is in some measure in a de facto alliance with the longed for caliphate of the Islamofascists):

This letter from al-Zawahiri, a couple of the key quotes:

“More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media …”

“The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam — and how they ran and left their agents — is noteworthy. … We must be ready starting now.”

Zawahiri’s letter in full (small pdf).

h/t: WindsOfChange

last line, “but not hateful.”

“Seinfeld” was a TV remake of the Jack Benny radio show. (A stand-up comedian starring as a stand-up comedian under his own name. A regular crew of neurotics, all men except one beautiful women. Repeat a joke three times. Etc. etc.) Except the Benny show was more self-referential (it was set behind the scenes of the Jack Benny show. A typical episode would start with Benny saying, “I want Humphrey Bogart to guest star on the next show,” and end with a broken and almost weeping Bogart agreeing to appear on the Benny show just to get Jack to stop bugging him). It also had a virtual character (the guitarist Remly, whose voice was never heard because he was always sleeping off a drunk).

All this in the 1930s. Yet Benny never got a Nobel.