con art : a niche market's will to stay exoteric

See, I write about art for magazines and newspapers and I believe in a certain amount of clarity in so doing. Because you do just wind up alienating people with ungrounded fancy talk otherwise, which is ultimately no aid to the artist you want everyone to know about and appreciate as much as you do. So I tend to stop and define things I don't think I would've 'got' when I was 15: things like art movements, the cornerstone of a particular critical notion, etc. And I like to introduce comparisons to more 'pop' culture in much the same way.

And people do say Mariko Mori rocks, although I'm not one of them (she spends shitloads of money - being a member of one of Tokyo's richest families, she can - to arrive at stuff that looks like Bjork covers c. 1995. The future? Naaaaah).

I think the art world will have to be a lot less up itself in the coming years to avoid alienating itself into economeltdown. And people who understand and appreciate art are less likely to tolerate war and lousy politics.

Posh Spice more articulate than Damien Hirst shocker.

Blur though are making way too much of a tenuous Goldsmiths link, innit? Someone should spank 'em for this. I had a foot in both scenes and can FOR SURE tell y'all that one Alex James didna have a clue about Damien Hirst et al until he joined the Groucho ('94).

Also re. Bjork: yeah, she gets artists in wherever she can. Like Matthew Barney who just left his wife/kid for her. Tch, girl power or WHAT?

Grrr. If *my* parents were journalists I TOO could make maximum cash while having the brain of a small gonad, and people would offer me columns where I would make that Daddy, I Want A Pony face in my byline pic for the benefit of all others' Sunday overhang.

What are the conditions which make you think this now, as opposed to (say) ten years ago, or twenty? From the outside, the art world doesn't seem to show many signs of slowing down, or alienating itself out of business.

1) I would leave my wife and kids for Bjork

2) Someone mentioned theater in relation to the above subject. The way people speak about theater has always confused me. Most theater, especially musical theater seems incredibly base, boring, and trite. Even for the pretentious, there is nothing particularly "high" or artsy about it. Most theater seems as interesting as a couple of Full House episodes back to back- musical theater being the episodes with performances by Jesse and the Rippers or that B-Grade Beach Boy who Stamos hangs out with. Those who defend it saying that it is important because of the actors, that it's an actors art, have obviously never spoken to an actor. Actors too, can be compared to Full House and characters in Full House. Damian Hirst and shock artists perhaps cannot and yet, they still honk.

An interesting footnote to my note: I heard that the Olsen twins grew up and are in high school and that they are total sluts. This is true.

But could you live with your mother in law being a packet of cream cheese? Heed the story of Space Ghost before you leap.