Another evening at the lake

I went to the lake this evening -- Swan Lake, that is, at the Kennedy Center, with the American Ballet Company. In fifty years of playing trombone, some of it for ballet, I had never seen a full performance of the Tchaikovsky's first ballet. Such performances really don't come to Fairbanks and rarely to Alaska. Given the costs involved, they don't get to much of America beyond a few big cities. I am grateful for the opportunity to see and hear such art, brought to Fairbanks by that nemesis of Congress and the radical Republican right, public broadcasting. It seems a pity to me that our modern culture has so little interest in the arts that ballet, orchestra, and (even) opera are always struggling for funds, but I have been pleased that the arts, in depth presentation of current events, and entertainment beyond unreality programming have been supported by our state and federal government. That seems a valid use of pooled funding to support complexity beyond the comprehension of a public so wrapped in instant gratification.

That our congress and our state legislature are hot to cut out all funds for these projects because they present views that do not agree with the legislators really PISSES ME OFF! I will vote that viewpoint at the ballot box as I do with my annual support for public radio and television, but I am afraid, in this era of one party politics, that the radicals will push through their censorship agenda before Americans wake up to what is happening.

Enough for now.