"Ordinary folks don't care about arts" - Harper

To Stephen Harper's chagrin, the following brilliant video has been "resonating" among "ordinary folks" all over Quйbec, with over 400,000 viewings since it was posted six (6) days ago!

Unionist:

I hope you don't mind if I post the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhgv85m852Q]subtitled (english) version of the the video[/url]. They did an excellent job and everyone should get the full benefit of the jokes.

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Originally posted by 500_Apples:
[b]To be fair to Stephen Harper, I don't think it's clear that "ordinary people" care about the arts beyond hollywood productions and professional sports.[/b]

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Are you suggesting I'm not an ordinary person? I'd give you my immediate reaction to that but I'd probably get myself banned.

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Originally posted by 500_Apples:
[b]To be fair to Stephen Harper, I don't think it's clear that "ordinary people" care about the arts beyond hollywood productions and professional sports.[/b]

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Hey, we aren't necessarily talking opera here... I look at the success of things like the Montreal Jazz and Comedy Festivals, the whole Folk Festival circuit out west... lots of small town celebrations with live music. Government of Canada sponsorship for most, and lots of "ordinary people" in attendance. And how dare you use the words fair and Stephen Harper in the same sentence [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img]

hmmm...cultural/intellectual purges...where have we seen this before?

Stalin?

Mao?

Khmer Rouge?

Steven Harper?????????

[img]eek.gif" border="0[/img]

watch your backs you smock wearing elitists....the brownshirts are coming with a majority near you.

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Originally posted by bagkitty:
[b]

Hey, we aren't necessarily talking opera here... I look at the success of things like the Montreal Jazz and Comedy Festivals, the whole Folk Festival circuit out west... lots of small town celebrations with live music. Government of Canada sponsorship for most, and lots of "ordinary people" in attendance. And how dare you use the words fair and Stephen Harper in the same sentence [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img] [/b]

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Good point.

To echo bagkitty's point. I live out in the boonies with 'ordinary' folk and the 'arts' are a pretty big thing here. Festivals, concerts, small town theatre, artisan fairs and art shows abound. Pretty much every single country fair from tractor pulls to pumpkin festivals have an 'arts' component and a lot of small towns have artists co-ops. It may not be big city opera but to say that ordinary folk don't care about airy fairy arty stuff is pretty laughable.

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Originally posted by bagkitty:
[b]Unionist:

I hope you don't mind if I post the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhgv85m852Q]subtitled (english) version of the the video[/url]. They did an excellent job and everyone should get the full benefit of the jokes.[/b]

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Wow - I've been away from YouTube too long! This is the first time I've ever seen the 'closed captioning' and 'full size screen' options.

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Originally posted by unionist:
[b]To Stephen Harper's chagrin, the following brilliant video has been "resonating" among "ordinary folks" all over Quйbec, with over 400,000 viewings since it was posted six (6) days ago!

[/b]

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That is the funniest thing, in any language, I have seen in some time. This needs to get spread around and go viral somehow.

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Originally posted by writer:

Edited to add: Harper's barbed shot at whining elites attending glitzy affairs was curious, given that his wife Laureen is the honorary chair of the National Arts Centre's gala next month in Ottawa.

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I hope this is marked, somehow, with a protest or something. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

I worked on a project that won a Prix Gйmeaux (French-language Gemini awards, what Harper was sneering at). Doubt very much that anyone but the producers and the administrators of the production company behind it make more than $50.000 a year - and those that make more are working very long hours, and don't have the benefits of Harper's business buddies) - and a lot of us make considerably less.

Harper carefully said "rich gala", but it sounded as if the artists themselves were rich. There are very few wealthy Canadian artists, and a lot of us in cultural work are borderline poor. Someone pointed out that the pretty frocks the ladies wear at those things are rented or lent, and of course all the gentlemen's tuxes are. You want them to show up in jeans? Then you'd be complaining about artists who are contemptuous of the audience.

Boom Boom, the arts are making a huge difference in the largest settlement in your parts, La Romaine - there are a lot of young Innu people who have thrown themselves into musical and other creation. It has made a huge difference in their lives and is one of the positive Aboriginal stories we hear too little about.

And I'm damned glad about the closed captioning. That is another "perk" [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img] they'd no doubt like to cut.

We have a writer friend who is blind (he lost his vision in Lebanon after a bomb blast during one of the civil wars there). Radio dramas and cultural programming on CBC and Radio-Canada are as important to him as closed-captioning is to hearing-impaired people.

And yes, cultural work includes a host of trades and blue-collar jobs.

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Originally posted by writer:
[b] Harper's barbed shot at whining elites attending glitzy affairs was curious, given that his wife Laureen is the honorary chair of the National Arts Centre's gala next month in Ottawa. [/b]

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Oh great. Now that you've outed her, he'll probably cut off her allowance.

It does smack of some kind of jealous snit, seeing her dress all pretty and head out the door without him, to go to those fancy events he just doesn't get.

Meanwhile, back in realityland, this gala talk has little to do with the lives of most who are in the arts.

I loved this comment at [url=http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/09/23/btc-at-a-rich-gala-all-subsidized-by-...

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Probably leaves out the 99% of artsy-fartsy types who go home from their waiter/waitress jobs and just want to turn on the TV.

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"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up — I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said in Saskatoon on Tuesday.

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When I hear the word culture..., I release the safety on my Browning

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[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: Jingles ]

A small point: neither in the clip nor in anything else quoted by the Toronto Star, does Harper ever say that ordinary folks don't care about the arts. The Toronto Star headline is misleading. It's usually a sign of clear thinking to be accurate when representing what someone else said, whether you agree with what he said or not.

When I saw that Michel Rivard was in the clip I immediately thought of making some kind of crack about how the Conservatives' attitude toward the arts is "phoquй," but then the clip itself made the joke. I guess it was too obvious.
By the way, the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zBPnIYavI&NR=1]long version[/url] of the pub is pretty funny too.

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Originally posted by torontoprofessor:
[b]A small point: neither in the clip nor in anything else quoted by the Toronto Star, does Harper ever say that ordinary folks don't care about the arts. The Toronto Star headline is misleading. It's usually a sign of clear thinking to be accurate when representing what someone else said, whether you agree with what he said or not.[/b]

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This quotation:

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"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people,"

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clearly shows Harper misrepresenting the meaning of culture in order to justify his funding cuts. I suppose his characterization of the arts as the domain of rich whiners is done out of his love for both the arts and accuracy in language?

And on whose authority is Harper qualified to speak about what us "ordinary" folks like? In our family we get out of the trailer every once in a while to go to Folkfest, Roughrider and Blades games, the opera and ballet, demolition derbies and monster truck rallies.

Last week we went to a play, after which one of the actors asked us to consider becoming a sponsor of the theatre company. In a civilized country she wouldn't have had to do so.

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: al-Qa'bong ]

Well, sorry, but I don't see much inconsistency in Harper's position. It's not the small-town community concerts and plays and little crafts festivals that he's targetting; those aren't "art" as he's defining it. It's the edgy, forward, more challenging (and I include opera and ballet with that), less small-c conservative, read: urban programs that he's publicly scaling back -- or at least that's the impression being given out, which amounts to the same thing in an election campaign.

It's anti-big city, plain and simple. This is a party without a single seat in the three biggest cultural centres in the country. This stuff solidifies Harper's appeal to many rural voters I talk to. This is a guy, they feel, who is making the right decisions, the hard decisions, not wasting money on nonsense like fancy art and culture, or empty justice.

The only thing that sets them back about Harper is that he broke his word about fixed election dates.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080925.wdoyle25/BNS... Doyle for Prime Minister![/url]

Haven't had much time for anything in depth. We're shooting right now, I'm home with the paperwork today.

Very few people in the arts make a lot of money. Even film and tv producers. Some make a comfortable living, but much of the time if you don't take on multiple roles you may have a hard time making ends meet -- especially in the documentary world. And the non-factual world is very hard to get into, very competitive, so you could be sailing along great, get canceled and then have a tough year. I'm certainly making less money than I would be if I'd stayed with the gov't job I had 11 years ago and quit to do this. Or if I'd put all those extra years of education into a professional degree.

We have a problem with home-grown content in this country for several reasons, not all of which I have time to get into right now. We have problems with distribution, for one thing, giving preference to the promotion of American content. We can look at Corner Gas as an exception -- it did fantastically well with Canadian audiences, but CTV promoted the shit out of it. If they hadn't, it wouldn't have performed nearly so well.

There is a conception that all the "arts" people in this country are making content that only the "elite" or artsy types watch -- not so. Sure, some do and we need to support the innovators who break the initial barriers that the mainstream adopts later or in less extreme form. However, at least in the tv and film world, there is a great deal of attention paid to generating accessible content and drawing audience share. To suggest otherwise is sheer ignorance. Who wants to make something that doesn't get seen?

And about the "rich galas", Doyle hits it on the head. These are put on via corporate sponsorships, not government grants or funds. It's a flat-out, bald-faced lie that Harper hopes people who don't get invited to fancy shindigs like the ones the missus puts on will suck up with righteous indignation.

The man is a snake. It's an insult to snakes to say so, but a more apt analogy is beyond me at the moment.

Back to the vast amount of paper to be killed in the name of art...

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Originally posted by triciamarie:
[b]Well, sorry, but I don't see much inconsistency in Harper's position. It's not the small-town community concerts and plays and little crafts festivals that he's targetting; those aren't "art" as he's defining it. It's the edgy, forward, more challenging (and I include opera and ballet with that), less small-c conservative, read: urban programs that he's publicly scaling back -- or at least that's the impression being given out, which amounts to the same thing in an election campaign.

It's anti-big city, plain and simple. This is a party without a single seat in the three biggest cultural centres in the country. This stuff solidifies Harper's appeal to many rural voters I talk to. This is a guy, they feel, who is making the right decisions, the hard decisions, not wasting money on nonsense like fancy art and culture, or empty justice.

The only thing that sets them back about Harper is that he broke his word about fixed election dates.[/b]

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No, you don't get it. He's cutting all of us. Regional culture will suffer equally or more than urban culture. Cut off the film and tv tax credit, the regionals suffer even more than the big city production companies. Cut off the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, you cut off the small producers who need it to make Canadian stories. Cut off traveling artist grants, you make it impossible for regional artists to get a following.

This isn't about urban vs rural. It's about a puffed up idealogue pretending he's all grass roots. It's about silencing voices that he, personally, doesn't like.

You sooooo do not know whereof you speak.

[ 25 September 2008: Message edited by: Timebandit ]

Today's Globe: [url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/Taber]Laureen Harper declines invitation to arts gala.[/url]

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In an e-mail from the election campaign trail yesterday, Mrs. Harper did not answer the question as to whether she cancelled because of her husband's comments and the kerfuffle he created over the issue of arts and culture in Canada. Rather, she said it was because of campaign constraints.

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Originally posted by Timebandit:
[b]This isn't about urban vs rural. It's about a puffed up idealogue pretending he's all grass roots. It's about silencing voices that he, personally, doesn't like.

You sooooo do not know whereof you speak.[/b]

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What makes you say that? My husband is a (small city) artist (with a day job) and a number of our friends are also artists, both part-time and professional, various media, so I think I do bring some perspective.

And honestly, from where I sit, the silencing dissent thing, while great and helpful to conservative interests over the mid to long term, just strikes me as peripheral to the central objective of brand management in an election campaign.

It's probably even secondary to just the general mayhem and confusion and infighting (case in point) that has resulted from these cuts.

Puffed-up ideologue I can go along with wholeheartedly but the man intends on on getting reelected and he is not stupid.

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Originally posted by M. Spector:
[b][url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=165099]Holy phoque, Stephen Harper[/url][/b]

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Here, Rivard plays a small-?scale music festival curator appealing to a panel of bow-?tied, elderly [sic], unilingual Conservatives for government funding. Part of his pitch includes singing a Quebecois folk song about a seal.

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It isn't a folk song, but Beau Dommage's (the long version of the clip had the inquisitors calling Rivard "Mr. Damages") 1970s tune, [i]La complainte d'un phoque en Alaska[/i].

If you get the chance to hear it sung in the right venue by the right people, the song can sound like an anthem.

[ 25 September 2008: Message edited by: al-Qa'bong ]

we owe the artists a living.

Troll? I just thought he was a socialist that recognized that the production of art was a meaningful form of labour [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]