RobertSpuhler.com

What To Do With the NEA

If I Ran the NEA - Los Angeles Times

(leave it to the Times to find the least-attractive way to lay out an article. Really - I have to click on everyone's head shot and have a pop-up window come up? We couldn't just do text?)

I know some of my more conservative friends will have an immediate reaction to this ("shutter it"), but I wanted to throw this out there anyway.

I can't make a case that the federal government *should* be involved in the arts. It's certainly far afield from the Constitutional duties of the feds. But I look at an arts supports system like Canada's, which has helped give me so many of my favorite bands (Stars, Broken Social Scene and Feist each have received seed money for projects at one point or another), and I wonder how to make it work here.

Can it?

On Virginia Tech

I wish there was something to say. I wish there was a lesson, a way to make things better, a way to guarantee that what happened yesterday at Virginia Tech never happen again.

There isn’t, you know.

Somebody is Fired

Boston Devices a Cartoon Marketing Ploy

Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Number one in the hood, g.

MLK

Being a hero does not mean not being scared in the face of danger or insurmountable odds. That is psychosis. Being a hero means being scared ... and doing the task anyway.

Free at last, they took your life, but they could not take your pride.

Holiday Spirit

I generally dislike holiday episodes of television shows ("…this week, on a very special Blossom…"), but Studio 60 knocked it out of the park Monday night, ending with a performance by trumpeter Tony Andrews and a backing band. They did "O Holy Night" and it was incredible. Their version should be available on ITunes (for free, purportedly), today. EDIT: Go here and look in the right sidebar.

The story line that set up the performance was touching, too – homeless jazz musicians from New Orleans were picking up fill-in gigs becuase LA session players all "got sick" for a bit to allow their brethren to pick up union cards and session fees.

And that’s the clunky segue to my friend Christian and his moustache.