Off-Topic: Maybe...

Earlier today, someone correctly pegged my personality - they called me a narcissist for more or less "having an ephipany at other people's expense." (my words, completely.) but that seemed to be about the gist of the complaint.

well, um, duuuuh. Of course I'm a *narcissist* - I post my private thoughts and not-so-well-thought-out opinions on a fucking blog. which is just one of the reasons I deleted the posts in particular - but it's not the only reason I deleted the posts.

There seems to be a vastly distorted perception that people - lots of people, MANY people, in fact, read my blog *all the fucking time.* I myself have absolutely zero proof of this, and in fact, have more or less stopped promoting my stupid, useless, lame-ass, not-so-well-thought-out opinions to no more than a half-dozen friends who love me enough to take pity on my lameness.

Thus, for the record, either a) no one reads this blog, which is certainly what I expect, or b) lots and lots of people are reading this blog, which would certainly explain why everyone from Site Santa Fe to some museum in Arizona to certain offended factions that shall be nameless are so freaked the fuck out by the stupid shit I have to say.

If the latter is actually the case, let's look at why more than my chosen half-dozen might actually be reading this blog.

Out on the vast wasteland of the American intellectual landscape, I can think of about two people who have strong opinions and aren't afraid to voice them - sometimes poorly, but definitively *often* - and these men are Howard Stern and Eminem. Five years ago, I wouldn't have bothered to listen to either of them - they're both morons, more or less, but their appeal to me is that they HAVE opinions and they fucking state them. Real loud, too. Howard I fell in love with just recently, listening on the way back from Burning Man - Eminem I've had a secret affair with for years, listening to his blistering diatribes about everyone from his *mom* (who disses their mom in public? That shit takes guts) to his ex-wife and "White America" of which he is most certainly an indelible part.

In case you haven't noticed, these cats aren't fringe looneys (like me) - they are quite literally at the very top of the American entertainment pantheon. And I think the secret to their appeal, and mine, if there is any - is that despite the fact that I am boorish, angry, ludicrous, occasionally intoxicated, always with a axe to grind - is that I HAVE OPINIONS AND I STATE THEM - which is such a far cry from what the rest of America seems to want to do, which is to waffle and mealy-mouth their way through post-modernity's "moral relativism" like Bill Clinton asking a grand jury to define "sexual relations."

Now, watch this - this brings me back, in my brain, to my utterly visceral reaction *against* Klaus Ottman's Biennial at Site Santa Fe. I was poised to hate it from the interview in the Reporter which I read before seeing the show, wherein Mr. Ottman more or less thought he could successfully deflect all criticism by simply saying, "This show will probably fail."

Did Site's PR department cringe when they heard that absolutely puerile, "allow-me-to-lower-the-bar-of-success" statement? I really think they should have, frankly, because inherent in that statement was "I really didn't have a lot to say with this Biennial. In fact, Biennials are sorta ludicrous and contemporary art really doesn't have a fucking thing to say, so just gimme my fucking check and I'll hide behind my disclaimer."

I just think, "hey, if you don't have anything to say, keep your mouth shut." In fact, why have a Biennial if the famous curator thinks the show will fail? Why not do as I suggested and turn the space over to outsider artists and homeless people?

The level of arrogance didn't end there, however. Mr. Ottman actually *must have* vanity googled Site Santa Fe Biennial in order to find my critique (which wasn't a review, as Zane Fischer pointed out) and then he basically called me out on my own blog, which is certainly fair, but you know, if you don't want further responses from a blogging crank, why would you write a response in the first place? Furthermore, what the hell is a world-famous art curator like Klaus Ottman doing googling and responding to my readerless blog in the dead of night if he really *believed* in the heartless polemic that he used to defend his (in my humble opinion) lackluster Biennial?

Here's my deal - I write strong opinions. I am frequently wrong and I frequently get in trouble for the stuff I write. The inability to be willing to be wrong is what's *really* wrong with America - it's not George Bush in the White House or Bill Clinton screwing his intern - it's not even as complex as whether or not they lied to us (of course they did) it's that when the evidence was available long long long before we *knew* for *certain* that they lied, that Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton had all that evidence and they did absolutely NOTHING, because they didn't want to go against the grain.

If people have nothing to say that puts them against the grain, they should keep their mouths shut. Living in a visual art town, I'm in the wild position of always saying what I want to say with *words*, so there's a lot less wiggle room for me once I've said something, and I get constantly crucified for it. (It's okay, I have a Christ-complex, so it's cool.) IF THE ART HAS NOTHING TO SAY, PLEASE, DON'T SHOW IT. DON'T MAKE EXCUSES FOR IT. DON'T HAVE A BIENNIAL JUST BECAUSE IT'S *TIME*. Shutter the gates and go home.

The last thing America needs any more of is a lot of pomp and circumstance over people, work, art, or ideas that have nothing that desperately needs to be communicated. There is really ENOUGH wishy-washy shit and bad lies floating around right now. If the art is "doomed to fail", then why bother to ask people to care about it?

Or worse - why get yer feathers in an uproar when a blogger with a readership of six actually bothers to tell you that your emperor has no clothes? I'm only stating the obvious, after all - which is what America is *really* afraid of. What the hell happened to the backbone of the people in this country? Why is everyone so afraid of hurting someone's feelings? Why will people avoid hurting someone's feelings at the expense of simply saying nothing of value at all?

Fear me, America. I think you're all a bunch of wussies. ;-) But to borrow from Eminem:

"(guffaw...) I'm only playin' with you, America, you know I love you..." because I also know you lack the ability to identify irony even when it playfully bites you on the nose.

-gregoryp(tm)