Monday, August 22, 2011

Lightening rods on churches, a bald face lack of faith.

1) In Kansas the Christianista Gov. Brownback is sending back federal money left and right rather than spend it in his own state, the latest is for the arts.  He fired the state arts council, locked the offices which brought millions in Fed $'s to underwrite orchestra's visiting small towns, city arts projects, visiting musicians camps for kids, etc.  He named a group of rich white guys who have paintings over their fireplaces to be a non employed state appointed arts council.  No dice say art charities and umbrella groups from around the nation, this group has no accreditation, they are pulling Kansas bound exhibits, shows, music lessons and camps.  Where does this leave Kansas small towns?  The church choir is the only form of "art"  available now, perhaps the goal all along.  War on art stinks.

1.1) Sarge sent me a link to news of the oldest fossil ever found, 3.4 billion years found in Australian limestone.  They are single cell creatures that lived on sulphur in a time when the moon orbited close to earth and the tides were gigantic.   If you do the math, this may exceed the 4,000 years believed by some to have passed from when "who laid the chunk" to Pontius Pilate enabling the church leaders of Judea to squash a movement focusing on the disenfranchised and needy and opposing the business temple relationship. Like the true distance between us and our rotten egg breath ancestors awash in poison tides, there is a chasm between what the beginnings of Christianity promised and the convoluted thousand mouthed 600 club angst of the day cage fight for dollars and votes that is contemporary American religion, smells like sulfur at both ends of this timeline.


6 comments:

  1. Fringe:

    So that is where the rotten egg odor is coming from. Something is rotten in Kansas. Better call the "sanitation" department.

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  2. Darrel,
    Austin is NICE! Tex-Ass, yes - But, awesome friggin nice.
    I swear - you get down along the river and the temperature drops thirty degrees.

    Tell your son to vote for General Sanchez for Senate.


    Bests,

    Ron

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  3. Whit,
    I heard a saying, great nations produce great art, or was it great art makes great nations? When we look at the ancient peoples of the world, those garnering the most attention, said to be the greatest, are those who left lasting pieces of art and architecutre. We know of others who did not, and you have to read some good history books to encounter their names, we don't remember them worth a damn, in the end they probably didn't make a lasting impact, at least one that we care about. Is that our goal, maybe in Kansas it is, to be overlooked, forgotten, non-contributors, but mindlessly obedient to the deity of our era.

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  4. Sarge,
    Well, at least this year the temp at the river (lake Austin) is not cooler than any other part of the drought stricken city. My son lives on the river, ground floor 150 feet from it, the yard looks like straw, trees are dead all around, weeds find a way, thats it. It's 103 again today at his apartment, I think he said they have almost 100 days of 100 or more this year, fires all over the place. The ground temperature is so high now in his part of town the tap water is warm, cannot take a cold shower. He sometimes puts a jug in the freezer then in the tub to cool the bath water down.

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  5. Having been involved in the arts in one way or another for 35 years, I can tell you this is nothing new. It has always been a struggle in this country to keep the arts afloat. But this sort of draconian measure is becoming more common and more devastating. I attribute it to the dumbing down of the country and cut backs in educational funding across the board. Hang on, more to come, I fear.

    You are correct, a civilization's measure can be seen in it's support of the arts and in it's treatment of the infirm, the young and the old. We're not scoring too well in that regard.

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  6. YF. OK, first, all you sumbitches need to understand what Governor Perry says: "There's a few holes in that whole evolution dealie."

    Yes, Professor Perry, we know. You're speaking to the blank space between your fucking ears.

    Second thing the boy says is this, "Jesus is responsible for all of the beauty on the earth."

    Since the Bible doesn't mention Jesus picking up a paint brush, there ain't no fucking art. Why are we having such a hard time with these concepts?

    OK, to close this debate, Jesus created church choirs. At least I think he did. So, maybe that's art. Why can't we just be happy with what we are supposed to be happy with?

    FUCK THE PRICK, RICK PERRY!

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