Carl:
> I'm more pissed off that the NEA withdrew their grant to Sub-Commandante
> Marcos's children's book under congressional pressure than that they
> validated a Hispanic twang musician's ambitions to stretch out a bit.
I figured my remarks would draw some flak, mainly cause Alejandro's
generally a fave around here, but in the spirit of P2 frankness went
ahead and made them anyhow.
On the one hand, I *entirely* agree with you that the NEA flap about the
children's book is far more significant and dispiriting. But what I meant
by saying the NEA link for this project is "symptomatic" is that the sort
of validation they offer--official institutional validation--is something
Alejandro's got plenty of already (he's been Austin artist of the year, a
certain magazine's artist of the decade, and so on and so forth). More of
it arriving in this package is par for the course in this case. Lord
knows I have nothing against "a Hispanic twang musician's ambitions to
stretch out a bit." Los Lobos, Freddy Fender, Flaco Jiminez, Ana
Castillo, Maria Ruiz de Burton, any living relative of Willie Cantu and
any number of conjunto and Tejano artists are gods in my house, etc. <g>
So let's not go there....
It's a taste thing: Alejandro just doesn't do it for me. I'm all for
intelligent music, I'm all for all those good things, but this music
strikes me as monotonous and boring and self-indulgent. I've seen a good
number of his live shows over the past five or six years, put in good
listening time, but for me it neither computes nor connects. He strikes
me, in my own limited and idiosyncratic world of taste, as a sort of Bela
Fleck of Austin singer-songwriters, if I can put it that way. Tremendously
talented, virtuosic even, but on a wavelength that doesn't touch me. The
aestheticism and artsiness of this music, as I understand it, are in
keeping with the current aesthetic of the NEA, which as we know
from innumerable incidents, doesn't exactly tend toward edgy, daring,
particularly innovative or, god knows, provocative or "dangerous" art of
any kind.
Just not my cup of tea. Like I say, I may be completely wrong, etc.
Ack, clearly I'm tired and grumpy on Friday night. Anyway, Carl, I do
appreciate your comments and have just tried to respond on the level they
deserve.
--junior
