4% of U.S. GDP.

Right on.

Annual American military budget = $400 billion.

Though too, via Michael Barone’s blog, the indications noted above are reconfirmed, re the MSM here and re the emerging Iraqi army here.

I, too, question why so many artists, ie writers, painters, actors, are left-leaning towards the road to serfdom when that ideology is the very thing which destroys creative expression.

I have devoted the past decade to theater and acting here in NYC but now I see that I exist in a state of complete frustration (downright disgust) with the vicious groupthink mentality which prevails in the artistic community. I can no longer identify with what is now hollow theater controlled by self-absorbed vulgar artists. Perhaps the artist has been for so long idolized by the audience they now believe themselves superior to the audience and feel obliged to ridicule and mock with vulgar insanity those they can emotionally manipulate. Most actors are so hungry for stardom they will abandon any sense of humanity in order to achieve such worthless notoriety, they’ll just follow along no matter how revolting is the message, the cause or belief.

After my own self-reflection into what I was involved with I had no choice but to leave that scene. I haven’t abandoned my innate desire to create, I abandoned those who tried to maintain absolute control over creativity.

It’s a shame.

Go figure…

Actually, I’ve never seen Pinter’s “Betrayal”, nor any other Pinter play, nor am I now inclined to do so.

But Pinter’s contribution to Seinfeldian humor should justify the Prize.

BTW, I didn’t realize until someone told me afterwards that the Seinfeld episode got the backwards-running idea from a Pinter play. Then, over the years, as I’ve watched that episode several times in reruns, I’ve picked up more Pinteresque references, i.e., Elain’s Indian ex-boyfriend’s name was Pinter, and the name of the episode itself. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

Oh well, after all, this year is (once again) the Year of the Inappropriate Nobel Prize Recipients, isn’t it. I mean, how funny is it that ElBaradei and the IAEA wins the Peace prize, after both N.K. and Iraq were bomb-making right under their noses…. One might say, in a post-Katerinesque manner, “Mo’, you’re doin’ a heck of a job!”

Best regards,
SteveR

Your next project is to not laugh at a poetry reading while going with someone else who also knows it’s tripe. Much harder, but I wish you luck.

Yes, a good portion of contemporary poetry is not much above the stuff written over unrinals in men’s rooms. Not much like T.S. Eliot. But there still are “real” poets around–try Wilbur, Ashbury, Merrill or Donald Hall. But I’m not optimistic. As in other areas of our culture, the lowest common denominator–read: junk–will win out.
Back to to Yeats, then, laddies and lassies.