My blog has legs.
The day before yesterday, I had One Eerie Experience - I discovered that my blog no longer needs to be publicized in order to reach the people it's supposed to reach.
Generally speaking - I post a post and then I post a link to the list of people who "receive" my blog. Weighing in at about 2000 names, I generally assume that none of those people would ever bother to read this blog without prompting from me.
Guess what? I'm totally wrong, as I discovered when the head of the organization I maligned - someone *not even on my list* sent me mail to explain his position.
My last blog post was more or less a total lie - a supposition based on innuendo fueled mostly by a total frustration in dealing with the organization at hand. I did what bloggers are supposed to do all the time, which is take misinformation and roll it up with hate and anger to fuel a climate of discontent. (The organization owes me money and has tried to make me jump through hoops to get it, which I resent.) I felt justified because I felt helpless - I felt "safe" because I didn't publicize the post. Imagine my surprise when he responded to my little cry in the night.
We'll be dealing with *the truth* of those nuggets of innuendo at some later date - as a general rule, someone has to feed me gossip before I repeat it or publish it, so you can be certain I didn't make it up. I just didn't justify it - and perhaps at a later date, I will. In the meantime -
DON'T LET YOUR GLORIFIED DOCENTS HIDE BEHIND YOUR HOOP SKIRTS
Can you believe this town? We have nothing better to do than argue the politics of museum management. Completely absurd in a town ten times its size, and yet, we do it. Yesterday, I got no fewer than six phone calls complaining about Zane Fischer's off-the-cuff remarks about the fucking docents. Go ahead, read the Reporter - and tell me *where* exactly you found the kind of malicious intent that SO MANY PEOPLE called me to complain about.
My mother is a docent, by the way, in case no one thinks I have any sympathy for these people, these retirees, mostly, it seems, folks with a lot of time on their hands who like to volunteer but might take themselves a *little too seriously* if these calls I've gotten are any indication.
Lately, I've sorta felt like Jimmy Olsen to Fischer's Superman - I take it people know that Zane and I are bosom pals - we went to college together, we got rolled in Mexico together once, Zane actually bailed me out of *jail* once - if I ever got married, he'd probably be my best man (if he'd accept) *despite the fact* that we have been known to ARGUE VOCIFEROUSLY in public about the arts (particularly about Site Santa Fe's last Biennial, but let's not go there.) People call me about him whenever he makes a public statement that set people's socks in an uproar, "Hey Jimmy, you know Superman was a real dick in the Reporter last week when he made fun of those selfless volunteers who probably *would* be home knitting if they didn't have the adult playpen of the museums to mess around in all day." And on and on and on.
Let's take a look at what he said, shall we? The strongest statement he may have made was that people don't need extra information in the forms of docents and placards in order to "experience" the art or whatever. I for one think this is a BoldFace Lie - and let me tell you why:
One - I'm an arts journo and an arts-writer for-hire - I have a VESTED interest in having Extra Information Around, (and in fact, so does Most Everyone who called me to complain, including docents, museum educators, and the dozens of various and sundry folk around this town who do or might like to write copy and lay stuff out for the museums.) Two - I'm a self-taught art nerd, and a word nerd besides. I'm the kind of person who learned Most of What I Know (an admittedly small amount but I've still published more than most museum professionals in this town) by reading stuff. So I like to read about the art - before and after I view it.
Three: I *don't* generally like anyone to tell me about the art - oddly enough, the most spectacular docent experience I ever had was at the Site Santa Fe "Our Grotesque" show which gave me so much context about the show that I couldn't justify hating it anymore. My *favorite* docent experience ever was at a private showing of Richard Tuttle's work in San Francisco, balsa wood works that I found so absurd that I gave My Own Docent tour about how "Tuttle works in cheap wood and primary colors to relive the primacy of childhood, next he'll be working in crayon" - only to discover at the very end that Tuttle himself was in my tour!
Dig this: Logically speaking, neither point 1, 2, nor 3 make Zane Fischer a bold-face liar. Nor, in fact, do his statements make him a traitor to the cause of museums (which, ADMIT IT, are experiencing a MAJOR DECLINE in attendance and general interest) or to the arts. It makes him - like me, but mostly UNLIKE YOU - a person with an opinion. A person with the guts to STATE THOSE OPINIONS in public, in a town that is increasingly soooooo politically correct and absurd that people might have you believe that it's more important to "keep the door of culture open - but for heavens sake don't say a fuckin' thing that would PISS ANYONE OFF."
People call me a loose cannon sometimes - I wish TO GODDESS I could say the same thing about the rest of YOU. Lighten up, already - or get your own damn blog.
ps: I checked. zaneisadick.com is available. REGISTER it and Make Your Case. My Jimmy Olsen outfit is at the cleaners.
