I have repeatedly made statements about my problems with HBO programming like Sex And The City and Girls being used as pop cultural propaganda and a glorified tourism ad for New York and the arts snobbery lifestyle that comes with it.
Artists of the world, in any medium, you need to up your game.
The argument that the arts cannot prosper outside of New York is hard to take seriously when one considers the massive achievements by foreign directors in the medium of film alone, Akira Kurosawa, Ozu, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Arrabal, Guillermo del Toro, Fritz Lang, Ruggero Deodato, Pasolini, Fellini, the list goes on and that’s just non-English speakers.
Literature casts an even wider net of great stories which are unfairly ignored due to their not being translated, but I assure you, in one specific case I think you’ll agree: if William Shakespeare managed to change the English language without so much as a college degree, I doubt he needs New York’s help. Your English teachers are all the publicity he needs.
And as for the poor fools who after reading my dissertation on why New York arts snobbery is overrated, especially those people in my street art lectures considering moving there after graduation… have you not read the news?
Talking to these people it’s like Hurricane Sandy never happened, they’re so naive that they’ll make it that they don’t even look up how tough it is for the underclasses in Harlem who already live there. I am aware of the Australian cultural cringe, but surely considering we have actual health care and a safety net here Sydney and Melbourne look pretty good when compared with America which is downtrodden by recession and misery.
I’m out, peace.
