America's Bedlam

If you are like me, you are tired of Charlie Sheen.  And the last thing that you want to do is read another blog or more commentary about "Charlie Sheen" and/or "winning."  But I can't get this particular response to the Sheen phenomenon out of my head and so I am going to blog it despite the fact that far to much cyber-ink has already been dedicated to the subject.

I teach art history (you know that because the only people who read my blog are my friends and family, but I like to pretend that I'm sharing bits about myself with a larger audience.)  So I was particularly interested in late-night host, Craig Ferguson's discussion of the London prison for the mentally ill, Bedlam, which has been documented (along with similar institutions) in paintings of the late 18th and early 19th century.  Masters such as Hogarth and Goya painted works of art that document the horrors of early mental asylums. 

When I teach these paintings in my art classes my students are always disconcerted by them.  How could people:
#1- find the sufferings of others so entertaining,
#2- have kept people with mental illness in such deplorable conditions
and
#3- have paid money to see people suffer as a form of entertainment?
It seems inconceivable to us today.  We look back in time and feel good about where we are today in our care for others and our forms of entertainment.

But are we really any more sensitive?  Are we really making better choices about how we spend our time and our money?  Is the way that we deal with those battling addiction or mental illness any more compassionate?  Probably, yes, when we are talking about the average American.  But if we are talking about those in the spotlight, then I think this week of all-Sheen, all the time indicates, no. 

So when Ferguson refused to tell a series of Charlie Sheen jokes on his late night show, citing Bedlam prison, I had to get behind him.  Not only because it's a refreshing break from Sheen-mania, but because it really does feel like someone in the media is standing on the moral high ground.  Throughout the media people are arguing that celebrities and public figures don't count.  They have put themselves into the spotlight and part of being a free society is the right to publicly ridicule, castigate, parody those in the public eye.  We don't have to back off Charlie Sheen because HE is the one calling the radio shows, agreeing to interviews, tweeting his every thought and producing his own web-streaming show entitled, "Sheen's Korner."  Perhaps.  But guess who's buying it? 

We are.

I am concerned about Charlie Sheen.  I do hope that his family is able to reach out to him and help him in whatever way he needs.  But I'm more concerned about Americans.  We put our support and our money behind the least compassionate and often depraved forms of entertainment.  We are gobbling up the drama of Charlie Sheen while North Africa and the Middle East are experiencing some of the most important and violent revolutions in their recent history; while the global economy is in serious recession; while North Koreans remain under the thumb of one of modern history's most oppressive regimes; while battles rage right here at home over unions, wages, healthcare and education. 

The point of "entertainment" is to take our minds off of the problems of the world for a short time;  release some of the heaviness of everyday cares and concerns and just BE for awhile.  Libya is not entertainment.  I get that.  But neither is Charlie Sheen.  And when we throw all our bandwidth and television-producing energy into consuming the troubled ravings of a single man, I worry that we are no better than those who paid a penny to spend the afternoon at Bedlam.

-With thanks to Craig Ferguson of CBS for the Bedlam reference.  To watch Ferguson's stand:
http://watching-tv.ew.com/2011/03/03/charlie-sheen-video-craig-ferguson-jimmy-fallon/

The Art of Busking

Come June I'm going to be in need of a new job.  I'm considering busking.  For those of you who don't know the definition of a busker is, "a person who entertains in a public place for donations."  Evidently it comes from the Italian buscare meaning "to guilt pedestrians into giving money to your 'art' because you aren't headlining your own gig at the Showbox."   I'm not a musician but I could stand around and spontaneously lecture about art and architecture.  It would be unique and, I feel, offer a valuable service to the art starved American public. 

I'm currently a teacher.  For those of you who don't know the definition of a teacher is, "one who willingly enters into a classroom to face a group of young people who are actively resisting everything one is trying to do for them."  When you are a college professor, as I am, the strangeness of the student resistance is compounded because your students are actually paying the university for the privilege to be annoyed by their education.  Add to this the fact that I teach art history, which most American students consider entirely superfluous.  Thus, every time I step into the classroom it is as if I am a street performer.  I'm sharing something with a group of people who can't get away from it, aren't sure they want it, but cough up the money to support it anyway.  

The way that I see it my skills as a college professor will translate well into street performance.  After another job hunt on monster.com I'm going to write Pike Place Market for an annual busker permit.  
http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/applications_permits/become_a_busker