TFM 45
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TM: What the hell’s a “Muse antenna?”
PM: Good to hear your voice, Tommy! How’s the article coming?
TM: Stupid. What’s a frickin’ “Muse antenna?” Are you claiming you’ve got some sorta artsy ESPN? You really have lost it.
PM: I’m doing well, thanks. The White Mountains are incredible. We should come up here and do some camping. I’ll bring the weenies. Anyway, I really needed a break. That car culture series was really putting some strain on the old brain, not to mention the monoprint monochromes. The latter’s totally indebted to Donald Judd. He’s even inspired me to consider another attempt at building the output of “Fall”. Here in the great outdoors, it’s all becoming clear. I’m starting to understand why Judd chose Marfa. Great art needs a backdrop of mountains, space, the Big Sky. …Hey, the road’s going to dip up ahead, so I may lose you.
TM: I hope you’re not using that Exxon card. You should be boycotting those profiteering bastards. America is at war, because of that maniac in the White House, his dad & their cronies, and Exxon’s laughing all the way to the bank. Did you know Exxon’s a Texas company? Did you know Halliburton’s a Texas company? & They’re just the worst offenders! Go online & check out the top 100 Texas corporations at Forbes’ website, & tell me how many of those companies are bummed about the Mideast’s problems. Why don’t you write about that, instead of this ridiculous artsy fartsy skipping through the daisies to Marfa, & finding Don Judd, & “WWDJD!” What would Donald Judd do? He was adamantly against the Vietnam War! He was adamantly against the first Gulf War! Did you not even read that Chinati Foundation newsletter you left me? Jeezus, if that’s a newsletter, my Ford Focus is a Hummer! Anyhow, there’s a great piece in there that Judd wrote about the United States getting tangled up in that moral vacuum of quagmiring bloodlust again & what it does to us victims & artists & whatnot… Here, let me read this to you…
PM: …The smog was killing me. You can’t enjoy a smoke in LA. The air’s filthy!
Dropped call.
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A hand-scrawled note in the margin next to Judd’s “Never Again War” essay: “My son Will was born auspiciously on the day the first Gulf War ended. He entered the world in a little adobe house in Pecos, New Mexico, with the help of two beautiful midwives. February 28, 1991. His mother had a back labor, for like 18 hrs. It was cold. We went through a cord of wood in 24 hrs. Will is the most precious person in my life. Six months after Will was born, I left his mother. Will ended that war, too. It just took a lot longer. Never again war. —PJM”
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(From a laser printer printout. I spilled my coffee on it accidentally, so some of it’s messed up or splotchy and whatnot.)
For the inaugural issue of Cantanker Magazine, I submitted a short essay entitled “Why Texas Is on my Mind.” In that essay, I alluded to some reasons for my choosing to locate my studio in Southern California and attend graduate school here at CGU, rather than settling in Austin, where I had envisioned establishing a 4D Media Studio and School. After visiting Austin a half dozen times over the course of a year (2004), moving all my stuff from West Virginia (in a 24’ box truck), hanging a show, then returning to do a major production in the Fall of 2005, I considered myself adequately informed about the Austin visual art/cultural scene to know not to invest five years or more there as a working, exhibiting artist in residence.
That said, as I wrote in the first Cantanker article, I had found much to love in Austin and her people. Barbeque, Barton Springs, etc., St. Edward’s and the Shady Tree crew, and now the extended artsy family of Cantanker, as well as beloved relatives who live near the city, keep me involved and coming back.
(A paragraph or two’s smeared here. Sorry ‘bout that, but my cat loves to knock over my travel mug, whenever I get baked, chill out & nap on the couch. When I’m working on a story, I usually set the cup down on the coffee table, which is my work desk, like, and Bugger jumps up there, sniffs the cup, licks the lid, then tips it over. & Then that mouse-lovin’ worthless ball of fur runs and hides under my bed & mews. Every time.)
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TR: I’m trying to get through all this junk you left me, but I’m not seeing the point. Isn’t Cantanker an Austin art magazine? Why should anybody in Austin give a damn about Marfa? Why go to Marfa, when you can stroll on down Brisket row, & check out the Blanton? Austin may not have Claes Oldenberg, but can Marfa brag about having the most beautiful women in the world? Didn’t some poll come out, claiming Austin’s females are the hottest? Was it Myspace? My short-term memory is shot. What would you know about it anyway? The whole time you were doin’ that show at St. Ed’s you were holdin’ out for that Sierra Club Cali-babe you were hooked with who went to Yale. You are such an idiot.
PM: Sorry, Tommy. I missed that last part. I think you were asking me why I’m juxtaposing Marfa and Austin. It’s a strategy to get at the factors that are necessary for an art scene to succeed. Marfa’s got all them now – permanent collections, thriving galleries and art foundations, artist residencies, but it had nothing in the way of contemporary art forty years ago. Don Judd, Dia, Chinati, Ayn and a bunch of others built one of America’s coolest art destinations in a quiet Texan town of 2500 souls just north of the Mexican border. It’s amazing! John Villani would love this story. By comparison, what does Austin have? Keep in mind that the population of Travis County is close to a million people. Well, Austin has UT. Did you know that the endowment for the University of Texas system is the richest of America’s state colleges? In 2004, I think that endowment came in at over nine billion dollars, which was 5th highest overall. So, Austin gets the mediocre Blanton. AMOA can’t even finance a new building downtown. Austin’s the capital of Texas, one of the most powerful republics on earth, and can you name one major piece of contemporary public art in that city? Aside from Julie Speed, a fine artist who admittedly sells well all over the country…
TR: Who’s Julie Speed?
PM: You need to get out of LA more.
TR: I read the magazines.
PM: Anyway, aside from Ms. Speed, name one artist who’s A-list.
TR: You’re such a snob.
PM: I am not! I’m just trying to make a point.
TR: I know, I know, but let me make one, here. Why is it that Exxon & Halliburton & Conoco & Dell & Sysco & AT&T & Valero & Marathon Oil & Plains All American Pipeline & Clear Channel & Apache & JC Penny & all the other Fortune 500 companies in Texas hate art & by extension, free speech, which is what art is. Art is at the pinnacle of the free speech food chain & these corporations hate it, unless it’s serving their bottom line.
PM: Did you say “Clear Channel?”
TR: Yep. Texan company, with some offices in Austin.
PM: They do talk radio. They do music.
TR: Clear Channel is Satan. They elected George Bush.
PM: Whatever. All those companies are based in Texas?
TR: That’s right. Texas boasts more Fortune 500 companies than any other state in the union, more than New York & more than Cali. …Believe it or not. & What’s the most profitable company of them all? That’s right: Exxon, by a long way; last year they cleared 36, 130 million dollars. Who knows what they’ll rake in this year, which is, like, year four of Iraq War II. You think Exxon, or any of these other guys ever does any business in Austin? I guess they never stop by AMOA on the way to the State house. I mean, it is only a few blocks down Congress. These guys must not be able to see the sign from the back seats of their limos. I mean, what do they care about Texan art anyway? When you’re that rich, why not fly to New York or LA for your hack impressionist landscapes. Plus, guys like Terry Allen aren’t that easy to control. It makes more sense to these new and old Robber Barons to starve the artists, than to try to handle them, or, worse case scenario, muzzle them.
PM: In 2004 Austin couldn’t come up with the five million bucks to pay for the honor of being the first American Capital of Culture. These guys are starving this city, just like they’re doing all over the country. It’s legalized thievery and usury, the worst era of wealth redistribution the US has ever seen. Art is a topical symptom. All you have to do is look at how a society treats its art and artists, and you’ll know how healthy the society is, especially in terms of free speech, without which a democracy cannot function. It’s a top-down problem. Have you heard about what the Smithsonian’s doing to try to stay alive? It’s despicable. Have you heard a peep out of the NEA? No more individual artist grants, no more complaints. This administration tried to destroy NPR, too. Thank God, they fouled that up with their overreaching. Under the former Texan governor in the White House, our nation’s most distinguished cultural institutions are being strangled, & so are our basic civil liberties. It’s no coincidence. Art is a social health/free speech indicator. Remember the Nazis’ “Decadent Art?” But in Marfa, you find magic.
TR: Well, don’t forget. UT won the national championship in football.
PM: I read recently at Aggiesport.com that in 2004, UT “topped the nation in football revenue at $53.2 million, clearing $38.7 million after expenses.” Are you surprised UT won it all? You think that’s where all those Texan Fortune 500’s are spending their disposable income? Gotta go. Kate’s calling.
TR: Hey, Big Mac, I thought you ought to know. A McLean won the Miss Scotland contest.
PM: Of course she did. Have you seen the pictures of her? What a beauty!
TR: No kidding. I didn’t realize they give that prize to Page 3 girls, but, if you want my opinion, I think it’s about time.
PM: Wrong Nicola McLean. When I get back to LA I’m going to beat you senseless for that one.
TR: C’mon! Lighten up! I was just joshin’ around!
PM: …
TR: Dammit.
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