White House: The New Carnegie Hall?

I love culture and art. But, man am I going to piss off my artist friends with this blog!

Music has been behind any project I have ever done creatively that was worth anything more than a trip to the circular file. In my mind, I can document any and all important eras and events in my life through the songs or artists I was listening to at the time. I put a very high value on music and it is an integral part of the memories that make up my life.

If I were President, you could bet your Great Aunt Betty’s sweet bippy that any chance I got, my musical heroes would be entertaining my “Leader of the Free World” fat ass right there in the East Room. Ian Anderson would be prancing around with his flute like my own personal Krishna, or Kokopelli, (although he’s a bit long in the tooth, that whole standing on one leg playing the flute thing may not work anymore) I would have Sting doing an acoustic set with Mary J. Blige, and L.L. Cool J would be telling me about my mom telling me to knock someone out. All of the best scientists would be replicating Johnny Cash’s DNA so I could hear “Tennessee Horse” one more time, and Soundgarden would be doing “Spoonman” with the White House’s best silver. Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

Lord Falderal has been doing a pretty good job hosting some decent jam sessions since he got into the White House and far be it from me to begrudge him that, or the basketball court for that matter. (Although I would replace that with biggest freakin wet bar made of ice you have ever seen.) All Presidents bring in their favorite musicians at one time or another during their terms. I wonder if JFK had Maurice Chevalier perform? Have to look that one up!

Recently, Falderal hosted a night of protest music from the Civil Rights movement in the East Room, and man, I would have loved to been there. Smokey Robinson, Seal, Bob Dylan and a host of others were there doing live versions of some of the best music ever written. Morgan Freeman, who quipped he wished he could sing, delivered some of the most powerful lyrics and quotes to come out of the civil rights era.  I would have loved to hear that. Hell, I would even sit through one of Falderal’s laborious TelePrompTer fed rhetoric sessions to just to get Freeman’s voice belting out words of inspiration from people much smarter than I, or Falderal.

This was a good thing, especially during Black History month. The message was very important and I give Falderal credit for arranging such a night. It’s admirable he is expressing and using his own ascension to showcase what has been a hard and well-fought fight by people of color. I like that Falderal is drawing attention to the success of civil rights leaders and not backing away from it. I felt he downplayed the authenticity of the civil rights movement during his seemingly endless campaign in favor of appeasing his political handlers who obviously told him to softball those issues.

There is only one positive thing that came out of the Falderal election in my opinion; the American public has finally evolved enough to elect a person of color to the most powerful position on Earth. I’m proud of that. These days that’s the only thing I am proud of when it comes to the American Presidency. I remember being both incredibly psyched and completely devastated on election night. The fact this country elected a black man President was an overwhelming feeling. The fact they elected the wrong black man made me want to pull my teeth out one by one. It also made me pissed as hell at George Bush, but that is a blog for another time.

The problem with Falderal exercising his executive privilege to bring artists to perform for him at the White House is the situation has become out of control. There is to be a White House concert series broadcast on NPR called “In Performance at the White House”, and it is actually getting a lot of press.

My issue here is this; is this the right time to be spending taxpayer money on a concert series at the White House? Is this the right message? I’m for federal funding of arts projects even in bad times, but does anyone realize what the cost is to put on one of these White House soirees? Once in a while, fine. Keep in mind, we pay for EVERYTHING associated with these performances and with a 4 trillion dollar deficit, that means my great-great grandchildren will be getting FICA withdrawals for Jennifer Hudson’s Town Car service from Reagan to the West Entrance.

The White House as Carnegie Hall? Nah, not a good idea. If we were living fat and happy I wouldn’t have much of a problem with it, but we’re not.

This is not a huge issue, but it is a common sense one. If I have a $200.00 paycheck and I need it for food, rent, diapers, whatever, but there is an Oingo Boingo show I really need to see for $199.99, what am I going to do? In this scenario I am not 18, but my current age of 40, so the answer should be clear. This is a wild example since Oingo Boingo would be lucky to get $9.99 per ticket, but I think the point is well illustrated.

I am not even going to get into the message it sends to those already dying to blow our butts to Kingdom Come. That’s a horse of an entirely different color.

Right idea, right message, wrong time.