I think we tend to get very critical of artists whose work reaches the
masses because they immediately become part of the giant capitalist
machine that has ravaged so many honest and noble hearts on this planet.
I think in this particular case you are being unfair to what I see (and
stand by to my original comment) as a labor of love. I say this
only because I saw Burns talk about his work on Charlie Rose and
I trust his motives based on that.
Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and get some corporate sponsorship in
order to reach the masses. At least there are some companies out there who
are willing to support the undertaking.
I think you should save your anti-capitalist sentiments for some of the
more wicked shit that goes down in this country on a daily basis.
America is indeed a land of contradiction. I would love to see the
government support a project like this through public TV and NEA and all
kinds of other great institutions that have been pummeled into the earth
in the last 20 years.
We all have to hustle a little in this friggin country (or
any other for that matter) to survive, and some have to hustle a lot
harder if they want to get their message across to the masses. Its no
reason for you to be critical of them, especially if they manage to
maintain some degree of integrity.
To be an artist in this country, or in fact to do anything you love, you
have to walk a very thin line that necessarily involves compromise,
and in this case "corporate advertising" in order to get your message
across.
Perhaps the symbol of America is the dollar sign, but you cannot overlook
the fact that all of the artists whose stories are told in this
documentary also had to walk on this fine line between making music and
selling out, and if it wasnt for their ability to do that, we wouldnt have
their recordings today to reflect upon their genius.
peace,
Nat
On Tue, 9 Jan 2001, R. Scott wrote:
> Here's an excellent point. I sat waiting for the thing to start and had to
> wait 10 minutes because of corporate advertising. And the commercial for the
> "product" at the end......geez!
>
> The symbol of America is a dollar sign.
>
> peace,
> R. Scott
> framboise@mindspring.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Catanzaro" <stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com>
> To: "Nathaniel Rahav" <nat@rhythmlove.com>; <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 12:34 PM
> Subject: Re: Ken Burns on Charlie Rose
>
>
> > Nat wrote;
> >
> > The whole thing is definitely a labor of love and not a commercial
> venture,
> > > which immediately increases its credibility thousandfold.
> > >
> >
> > Don't kid yourself! I have never seen so much ancillary packaging for a
> PBS
> > production. Videos, DVD's, Books, CD's.... and check out the gigantic GM
> > spots. "Public" broadcasting? Kind of laughable.
> >
> > Burns may be passionate, but he'll probably make more money off of this
> one
> > thing than Art Tatum made in his whole career....
> >
>
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