It’s the middle of August, hot and nasty (and not in a good Humble
Pie-kinda way), so please allow me to rant.
• I sent a hand-written note to President Barack Obama the
other day. (Fox News will probably be reporting that the administration
will be creating a special category of its enemies list just for people
who are so outdated as to use the Postal Service. Plus, the White House
will probably have to go out and get somebody older than 40 who is able
to read longhand.)
• The letter, in part, read: (Oh, wait, before I go on, I have
to answer a couple of people who asked if the encounter that I had with
a texting knucklehead—the one I wrote about a couple of weeks
ago—actually happened. It did. People who know me know that,
perhaps due to my upbringing, I will say just about anything to just
about anybody at just about any time. Except, of course, to my wife,
which is why we’ve been married for so long.)
Anyway, the letter:
Dear President Obama:
I am a lifelong Democrat, and I’ve been a big supporter of yours
ever since I realized that your people had rigged all those caucuses,
and my candidate, Hillary Clinton, had no chance of winning the
nomination. I applaud most of your foreign-policy efforts, and I also
support most of your domestic agenda.
However, I have a real problem with your “Cash for Clunkers”
program. I drive a Honda Civic, and because it’s stick-shift, and I
don’t speed, and I don’t ever use the air conditioner, I get around 36
miles to the gallon. Last week, I went almost 500 miles on one tank of
gas. (I got up to 496 miles before I chickened out and filled up; it
was like Kramer doing the Thelma and Louise rip-off on Seinfeld.)
Anyway, I’d like to get $4,500 for my car toward the purchase of
a new Civic, but I don’t qualify. You’re only rewarding the people who
have been driving gas-guzzlers all these years. What about us
conscientious folks who have always driven fuel-efficient cars, because
we think it’s good for the environment, and it’s in our country’s best
interest? You’re turning your back on part of your core
constituency.
Oh, yeah, before I forget, the reason you score in basketball
games is not out of deference to your office, but rather that when
playing man-to-man defense, nobody likes to closely guard a smoker,
because they smell like dookie.
And then I signed it: Sincerely, Jimmy Boegle.
Hey, even Fox News gets things right sometimes. I don’t need to be
on any more enemies’ lists.
• OK, so the Tucson City Council, blinders firmly in place,
completed a land swap for some old buildings, keeping alive their dream
of a Warehouse Arts District. (I read in The Economist that
McAllen, Texas, is building an arts district; we can’t have an
arts-district gap!) Now they have to find some private
citizen(s) willing to spend millions to refurbish the Steinfeld
warehouse.
As I’ve said recently, I’m not going to pontificate from on far, so
I went by to see the place. It reminded me of an old Flip Wilson joke:
This guy gets in a bad car crash, and his arm is mangled to the point
that it’s hanging by one strand of muscle. He frantically goes from one
doctor to the next, but all say that the arm is going to have to be
amputated. He finally gets to the world’s greatest expert in this type
of trauma, who inspects the arm and tells the guy it won’t have to be
amputated.
The patient sighs in relief, but then the doctor says, “No, in about
10 minutes, it’s going to fall off all by itself.”
We all understand that the “arts community” in Tucson has an
inordinate amount of clout. That’s OK; if it weren’t them, it’d be some
other group. Politics abhors a clout vacuum. We’ll see if they can make
a go of it. In the meantime, please stop sending me that form e-mail
that makes the ridiculous claim that art pays for itself 10 times over.
I’m going to track down the next person who sends me that and explain
to them how it’s mathematically impossible. And stupid.
• Speaking of which, City Councilwoman Regina Romero opened her
mouth again, and stupid just fell out. In praising the council for
making the warehouse deal, she said that the deal was great for
Tucson’s (and I quote) “creative class.” Really? There’s a “creative
class“?
I wonder where on her caste system she puts people who can’t paint
or sing or stick pins in themselves.
• I can’t help but wonder if UA athletic director Jim Livengood
knew about Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s life mess back when Livengood
was looking for a new basketball coach. Pitino is embroiled in a
situation involving admissions of adultery, possibly a paid-for
abortion, and allegations of rape and extortion.
What did Jim Livengood know, and when did he know it? And boy, I
sure am glad he did.
• And finally, in the most extreme example of not being able to
recognize irony ever, a group of morons showed up at a
health-care reform meeting and proceeded to shout down the speaker by
repeatedly screaming, “We’re Americans!”
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.
“…ridiculous claim that art pays for itself 10 times over.”
That derives from figuring out a multiplier that is not too big to be believed and not too small to be impressive. In this case, they violated the first tenet; a better number, that is believable, is more like 0.06.
Tucson will get no where with all the dopey romantic immature thoughts about how Art would save a downtown. Nina Trasoff is far from the ballerina she once was and cannot relive this with any amount of bad warehouse art. Put simply, if it is not sponsored by Budweiser, it will fail. No economy can survive in an area where people are not accustom to going unless it is firmly based on over-priced food and drink. Unless downtown is turned into Bourbon street, and no city council person wants that to be their legacy, it is an exercise in futility. Gas Lamp in SD, Bourbon St in NO, Larimar Square in Denver, Underground Atlanta in ATL, the River Walk in San Antonio. The common denominator here is BEER. So suck it up and get on with the realization that Americans are gluttonous and superficial and never brag about “Art” after a vacation or a night out. Whomever chased out a brewery are 7 fools.
Really, Danehy, you have NOT heard about the “creative class,” and Richard Florida’s work on that subject in a couple of much-ballyhooed books (The Rise of the Creative Class being one of them). The “creative class” is not just artists, but is found in a variety of fields, including engineering, the sciences, the arts, biotech, education, etc. But it is a group that has certain expectations about what kind of culture makes them want to live and grow in a community — and “the arts” is an important part of that. You should read Florida’s books. I am not so surprised that Regina Romero may be more educated about this issue than you.
As for the condition of the Steinfeld, your joke falls pretty flat. I agree, though, the building looks pretty bad, particularly from the outside — inside, at least when it was occupied a bit over two years ago, much of the building was quite beautiful. But a couple of structural studies have agreed that the condition is really not all that bad, and there are some fairly simple things that can be done to make the building last and be a great home for Tucson culture for another 100-plus years, or more. Really, I’m not kidding.
As to art paying for itself “10 times over,” sure, I’ve heard that, and probably passed it on. I don’t know that I believe it. But I am convinced enough, by a lot of very hard evidence, that art and culture is a good civic investment. Maybe “5 or 6 times over” is closer to the truth, and I’m sure it varies from place to place. Certainly when we look back at history, one of the most-remembered things about a city or nation, at least throughout recorded history, is its artists, its cultural flowerings. More remembered, celebrated, and influential than its politics and economics, and more than just about all of its news columnists.
As for the “clout” artists have, where in the world do you live, Mr. Danehy? Certainly not in my world, where the arts have been given no increased budget (at least through the local arts council) for over a decade, where civic leaders have been vocally supportive but, in actions, rather handicapped by the economy, and where artists are fairly vocal, yes, but powerful? Please, take another look. It just isn’t so.
As for the prior poster”s desire for beer to be the saviour of downtown development, I had a nice ale yesterday, at Tucson’s birthday party, on one side of the newly opened 4th Ave underpass, and another nice ale on the other side. There seems to be plenty of beer around. Oh, and I always talk about art after vacations and nights out. I travel for art, and I know people who come to Tucson for art. I don’t know if I know anyone who has ever come to Tucson specifically for beer. Hamburg, yes. And to Tucson for great Mexican food, which will always have a place amidst my downtown art world.
Tom,
Your comments in this week’s Tucson Weekly show once again that you have little clue to what makes a city and community great and obviously have little knowledge about historic restoration and preserving our city’s heritage. Your comments about the unique Steinfeld Warehouse are about as ill informed as anyone could write about. I hope the Weekly does not have to pay you for your dumb comments. I suggest therapy for you at this stage of your life.
Livengood must of lived a ethical, and honorable life to be this lucky in missing Tim Floyd, Rick Pitino, and John Calipari. Hopefully there is not a warthog hiding in Sean Miller’s background.
He doesn’t need therapy. He needs a beer.
The comments insulting Regina Romero are completely out of line. Fine if you disagree with her, though you are ill-informed and should try doing a little more research, but to take it to the level of personal attack cuts off meaningful debate and reduces everything to name calling. Not unlike what has been happening for years on the right wing talk shows. I had higher expectations for the Weekly. Just because she is an elected official doesn’t mean you throw out any sort of basic respect.
There’s a lot of back-slapping congratulations going on about the basketball hire, and much of it is gratefulness over the fact that we have a coach who probably will be very good. (He certainly made a great impression on my son, who took part in his camp this summer.) But I think that NCAA basketball is a farce and trouble can come from anywhere while the controlling organization insists on donning the “student-athlete” figleaf to hide their enormously fat wad of rolled-up money. (Apologies for the mental image.)
This year’s recruiting class is supposed to be amazing, but I’m certain that at least some of those USC recruits may have just a small taint of whatever it was that blew that program into smithereens over the past few months. And no, I don’t think things are never rotten in Tucson, since even Mr. Happy Tubesocks stole from the till that officially isn’t there.
Livengood has been lucky, but it’s not as if no gambling is going on.
As for the clunker nonsense, I see it as an overall good idea that has the unfortunate effect of seeming like it’s punishing those who made good decisions. It gets older, less efficient cars off the road, which is not a bad thing unless you were after a 1997 sedan that gets 16mpg. And it gets more people into more efficient cars, which is a good thing unless you are one of those idiots who actually like propping up the evil anti-American regimes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and Canada (home of the illegal hordes seeking hip replacements, and coming from the place that brought us Glass Tiger and Celine Dion, they need hip.)
Just take some bill envelope, turn it over, and calculate the money you saved from driving your Honda for however many years against the price of driving an SUV or a minivan. You’ll probably see that even with the value of a clunker trade-in you’re ahead of the game, and you did it like a good American: by yourself, but with a nagging feeling that you got screwed somehow.
And if you want to sell that Honda, don’t. It’s probably only got another 200,000 miles on it, so no one in their right mind would want such a thing. Reliable? Efficient? Inexpensive? Completely worthless traits, obviously.
I can’t believe you really sent a letter like that. If you were actually going to go through the effort why shoot yourself in the foot right from the get go? I’ll bet you are one of those people that screams at the TV a lot. Wasted time, wasted effort (and a beer belly to boot perhaps?)
What do you do for a living? other than play basketball and watch a lot of TV and writing some rants about it? I am still wondering, particularly after this – there is no way this pays the bills for you…