Posts by Jolisa
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College town in rural Massachusetts (Amherst), which, on the one hand, crunchy-granola country, on the other, rural.
Almost equidistant from both Amy and me.* Between the three of us, we could cover the whole Northeast with crazy ideas about New Zealand...
Hmmm, inaugural New England PAS meet-up? I know a guy who makes pies. I'm on the ginger crunch. And Amy makes a mean (which is to say chef-quality) pretty much everything else.
*and only a short drive from Northampton, to bring us back on topic, more-or-less :-) -
I already tweeted this, but: stalwart advocate (and sort of architect) of No Child Left Behind has come out against it:
“Accountability, as written into federal law, [is] not raising standards but dumbing down the schools”
Meanwhile, in school-land, the tests themselves are trundling along fairly painlessly. Helped massively by a week and a half without homework, a steady supply of cupcakes, a commitment to calming & distracting classroom activities in between the tests, and - the crucial bit - no more actual test prep.
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(Incidentally, I am trying to decide whether to get a haircut of this nature before I move to the US in August. It seems like a good opportunity to screw with people.)
Depending which part of the country you're moving to, you could always work up to it in stages, starting off with something more mulletesque before going for the full Neil Finn.
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Danielle, not sure which is funnier - the goose incident itself, or the fact that it's reported on WAK TV!
Noting that Virginia Woolf was also a member, can I ask if a room of one's own and 500 a year is still a policy plank? Cos that would be nice.
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Reiterating Christopher's point about Jan's point, nowhere was it suggested that classical music is the only serious music and thus all other music is not. Instead, as Jan wrote:
Concerts take time and concentration. Concerts are about serious music - not necessarily European classical music - Indonesian gamelan and Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns recreation of early Maori music, for instance. Music with something to say. You certainly don't want to be dragged out of it at the end of every movement and told which firm to buy your mobile phone from.
See also radio drama (something else I would love to see, er, I mean hear way more of on our public radio stations), which is likewise not super-amenable to being broken up with advertising.
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There weren't, if any, women, blacks, hispanics and certainly no Kiwi's in its probably first 500 years.
Sigh. There were indeed women both composing and performing, all the way through, and it's not their fault that most of us haven't heard of them.
Thanks to Russell for quietly and repeatedly powerpointing the numbers, which make most of the anti comments on here moot. I'd also like to thank BenW for his comments on the previous pages, too. Sometimes a simple heartfelt "just because" is good to hear:
I just reckon that of the several hundred dollars I gave in taxes this week to that particular budget, one could surely be spared for public art. I can't find a theoretical model to frame this arbitrary feeling any more than I can find a good rationale for how much money I gave in charity this year.
It is also my arbitrary feeling, completely un-needing of rationale, that Danielle immediately be given the keys to a disused radio station and a budget sufficient for tea and bickies and regular raids on the best soul music archives in the world.
That's my 2%, anyway.
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(Was thinking of, say, a hypothetical state-funded hip-hop/Maori language/Pasifika radio - if such a thing existed, cost $5mil a year, and was threatened with extinction, I doubt you'd be hearing or indeed making the same arguments).
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I think what I mean is, you try us.
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Honestly, i'd feel the same way about any genre based public funded radio
Really? On principle, you'd shut down any "genre based public funded radio"?
Is news a genre, by the way?
Good points otherwise, however its not like there is a viable net based alternative for the delivery and quantifiable benefits of a good walk in a national park.
Ah, tramping, that thoroughly genre-based recreational activity, neither universally appealing nor regularly enjoyed by more than a comfortable minority (one might even call them an outdoorsy "elite," what with their specialised knowledge and fancy equipment and all that). But sure, keep the huts open, I don't mind helping to pay for them on the off-chance that someone I know might want to use them one day and might be otherwise unable to afford it. I'm democratic that way.
Hmm. I've just realised what's so dispiriting, indeed, gutting about this whole discussion. It's that if the (turn)tables were turned, and it was a state-funded cultural/musical institution dear to you lot that was threatened with extinction, I'm pretty sure the classically inclined crowd hereabouts would be defending it to the death. Because we can see the value of culture for culture's sake, even when it's not necessarily our cup of tea.
I'd have thought the courtesy was mutual. Once we had each other's backs. Now it's like you can't wait to stab Concert FM in the front -- and with such uninhibited glee. This is not what I marched for, dammit.
OK, I'mma let you finish, but Kanye has something to say, which is: can't we all just get along?? (N necessarily SFW, unless ladies bumping and grinding in their corsets are your thing).
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Meanwhile, while we all play this "shoot-at-the-evil-Ludwig-van-Beethoven" shell game
Now this is some truly evil Ludwig van Beethoven. Not just evil, but illin'...