June 23, 2011 – The Actorvist

I’ve just spent, at the very least, the last half hour reading the updated reviews of “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark.” I am delighted to say that it seems to me that people are beginning to change their minds about this once cursed production.

After reading a review of the show, it piqued my interest to see if other people felt the same way. The article says that thanks to the reworking of the script to give it more of a complete solid story, that made all the difference. One of the main issues was with the character of Arachne, who had such a large role through the show one would think the show was about her. The rewrites have pulled back the character so she’s more like a spirit guide for Peter Parker.

Now there’s also no Greek chorus. The Greek Chorus, while it’s been around forever, it seems to recently be making the rounds on Broadway, from Legally Blonde to Xanadu to Priscilla. Not that I minded them in the first two shows, but not so much in the latter.

It’s still up in the air how well Spider Man will do, but at least it won’t be the big disappointment that was originally forecast.

Here’s to a good multi-year run! Cheers.

There are times when people just need to be tucked in a cave and that cave covered with a huge boulder so that they are never heard from again. Sarah Palin is one such person! In this instance, I would love for it to be a coal mine.

I recently came across an article that she was on Sean Hannity last week talking her usual smack and bringing up old stuff that she’s comfortable talking about. When she’s asked about budget cuts she says: “NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of frivolous things that government shouldn’t be in the business of funding with tax dollars — those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14 trillion debt that we’re going to hand to our kids and our grandkids. Yes, those are the type of things that for more than one reason need to be cut.”

And what really gets me is that there wasn’t any sort of news coverage about something this big. And the link for the clip doesn’t have any mention of the economy, just her, mindless monotone blabbing that really offered no real insight on Hannity’s questions. There was a link for the transcript, so I figured I would read it. Then, I saw that the clip was from March as was the transcript thanks to it’s posting date. When you do click on the proper date, there’s no Palin interview. Instead it’s Tim Pawlenty. WTFrack? So I did some digging and even lowered my standards and went to the Hannity site and Fox news There is no mention of it there either. I love how Fox is so quick to protect their own.

Thankfully the LA Times took the time to say something.

‘Debt reduction would barely be affected by penciling out the small federal arts agency, which currently operates on a $161-million annual budget. Palin’s support of a federal subsidy for the notorious “bridge to nowhere” in her state became a campaign issue when she ran for vice president on the 2008 Republican ticket. That local project carried a price tag of $223 million.

“Reality is we have 15 million Americans who are out of work,” said Palin. Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry supports 5.7 million jobs and generates $166.2 billion in annual economic activity, according to Americans for the Arts. The NEA is one linchpin in that sizable economy.

In the interview Palin made no statement advocating similar budget cuts to her home state as she recommended for the NEA, which is also in the cross hairs of Washington’s Republican leadership. Palin’s Alaska gets $1.84 in federal spending for every dollar its citizens pay in federal taxes.’ – LA Times

Charles Segars, television CEO, remarked, “This kind of knee-jerk, uninformed rhetoric is the stuff of cheap-shot campaign commercials” and pointed out that calls for “cuts to the NEA don’t take into account the substantial return on investment those funds generate in tax revenue to local, state and federal treasuries.”

According to the National Endowment of the Arts, this year’s budget is a mere $154,690,000. This program actually makes money for the economy 1074 times more than it costs. Even at its highest budgeted year in 1992, $175,954,680 would still bring in 945 times its cost.

Hey Palin, if you really want to make a difference in the economic costs stop the war you moron! Many groups place the war at different costs per day but the majority of them agree that it’s over $1 million dollars a day. $365 million dollars in a year. If we stopped fighting when Dubya said the war was over back in 2003 $2.5 billion would’ve been saved. Not to mention the cost of its consequences on those involved and the interest that’s accrued on that debt.

So saying that these programs need to be cut because they’re frivolous fundings is an ignorant statement on your behalf you half term Bridge To Nowhere dingbat.

Want to hear something that’s scary? The scary thing is that there are people out there in our country that actually take her seriously. Does that mean they are even less informed than she is? Now that’s a horrible thought.

Does this make a chill run up your spine? Do you agree that Arts Funding is ‘frivolous’, please let me know why. Leave a comment. Let’s chat…