SHARKFORUM: OPINION WITH TEETH

In regards to many of the comments, I must say in my opening post, I am simply making a plea for openmindedness. Let’s be careful of turning language crafted with some thoughtfulness into buzz phrases. I am not mindlessly promoting Rush Limbaugh,; the careful reader will note (as many did!) I went through a long evolution in my listening experience as regards this particular talk show host (who, by the way, does not perform the same function as a journalist and has absolutely no need to be “fair” and show “both sides”) and that I ended up feeling it was important to me to hear the voices of his listeners in order that I stay more in touch with a wider reality here in America. I have and will continue to listen to and access a wide variety of resources.

To the person who asked if I ever listened to Air America. Yes I did, when it was first on the air in Chicago. Then it was booted off whatever station it was on and that made me lose interest. (What I do listen to sports talk; all-news stations, other AM talk radio besides WLS (WGN and so on), NPR, WXRT, and WFMT (the classical station), and as I mentioned in my article, Catholic Radio. I even listen from time to time to the Polish language stations at the top of the dial in Chicago.) It was that in my own life, I need to hear a wide variety of voices, viewpoints, types of information, and a range of music. I find it helps me be a better curator and hopefully a more involved citizen. I was suggesting that it might be helpful if others opened themselves to a wider range of information, especially if they are involved in cultural matters where their stock-in-trade is being aware of what’s going on in society. Simply put, if people have tuned into White Sox games and find they just cannot stand listening to the South Siders win the World Series, well, I respect that. And I have no problem with people who just aren’t interested in baseball. What I am impatient with is those who “refuse” to listen to baseball because football is obviously better, who think they know what is going down in the world of baseball when in fact they have no first-hand information or experience, or degrade others because they are, say, White Sox fans when somehow the “correct” thing to be is, say, a Cubs fan.

I also want to respond to those who have talked about art schooling. I have a degree from SAIC (BFA 1976), and have taught (although not as a faculty member) at several other area schools. I have long been interested in education issues and in “the art of art schools,” which incidentally was the subject of my very first exhibition that I organized at MCA. Yet I am not interested in merely pointing out deficiencies, as much as I might enjoy well-told anecdotes that encapsulate them. I would hope that various factors be weighed, and we collectively work to understand why it is things are the way they are and even more important, do we want to change these things, and if so, how might we collectively go about it rather than providing one another with laundry lists of our discontentments. And that we always politely agree to disagree if indeed we do after honestly and openly hearing out the ‘opposing view.’

Or, if you’re just not interested in any of this philosophizing (or if you prefer, pontificating), Ray Pride has posted some very beautiful pictures, and Simone Muench’s words-of-the-day are marvelous, and there are ruminations on movies, music, art exhibitions, and many, many other splendid things here at Sharkforum Happy New Year, More later, Lynne.