La Barbra apparently told an audience member at her upteenth farewell to STFU when he heckled her George Bush sketch, which mirabile dictu portrayed the President as “dumb.” According to the AP, “Once the outburst (which Streisand later apologized for) was over, Streisand noted that ‘the artist’s role is to disturb,’…” Well, she may be right about that, but not in her case. In her case, the artist’s role is to be utterly conventional, especially in her political thinking.
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In this it would seem that the artist’s role is to be disturbed.
I would say that it would seem the artist’s role is to be a mouthy dumbass.
My goodness Babs! Such language!
“Can’t take a joke …”? I’ll take that comment at face value (and for the moment ignore the expletive): if we’re to understand that Ms. Streisand’s endless vitriol against the president should be taken as a “joke” — as in, not serious, intended as comedy — then I’m actually fine with it. But I suspect that’s not quite what she intended. Rather, it reads like an emotional adolescent outburst against an annoying needler.
She’s obviously not used to this but hopefully now understands that stating political views in a public forum might invite a response you don’t like. This would seem like Debate 1A to the rest of us but based on her response I’d say it’s novel to her. Telling your adversary to STFU is a curious counter-point, but at least there was a response. One can only imagine the fireworks if any of the other liberal glitterarti (Clooney, Penn, et al) had to actually face an adversarial public.
Babs long ago ceased to be funny girl. Though of modest talent, amplified manyfold by talented cameramen, makeup artists, script and song writers and publicists, she has aparently become a legend in her own mind. A high school graduate, Babs sometime ago decided it was her duty to enlighten us all by showering us with her knowledgeable, penetrating and misspelled analyses of politics and world affairs. Returning to the limelight for her umpteenth, final, ultimate, farewell tour, she has not only managed to sing yet again but also to expose another side of her glorious being to us; her breeding and ladylike refinement. Given her attitude, I think that she should have them change that oh so sappy song, “People” to “People Need to Just Shut the F..K Up!”
“In her case, the artist’s role is to be utterly conventional, especially in her political thinking.”
Boy can I attest to that! As a musician I work with these people and they are truest example of “sheeple” you can imagine. They are lockstep leftist reactionaries, and the new face of McCarthyism. I risk unemployment if it becomes known that I’m not on the same political page as these folks.
It’s also amazing how monumentally ignorant they are of how economies function.
Thomas Sowell describes it perfectly as “the politics of self congratulation”.
Barbara Streisland has a beautiful voice. Unfortunately, I can barely stand to listen to her. Barbara’s idiocy gets in the way of my enjoyment of her songs.
‘the artist’s role is to disturb”, this is a relatively new philosphy,previously,the artists did what they were paid for,at best they innovated what they could sneak in or negotiate with their patrons.
It is unlikely that Bach told the Margrave of Brandenbug to STFU.
Yet another Vanity Fair pea hen strutting her stuff.
“Barbara Streisland has a beautiful voice. Unfortunately, I can barely stand to listen to her. Barbara’s idiocy gets in the way of my enjoyment of her songs. – David Thompson”
I’m worse off than that. I absolutely cannot stand to listen to her anymore. Whenever I hear her on the radio I get this mental image of a raving lunatic frothing at the mouth uttering nonsensical Bush Derangement Syndrome moonbat phrases.
I recently took all of my Streisand CD’s and burned them in the fireplace. I had initially thought of selling them on eBay, but that would allow others to experience her work and give her work a larger audience. So I decided to make the world a better place in which to live by not exposing anyone else to the “voice from the fever swamp” and instead generate some heat for the house. At least this way the global pool of her CD’s has been diminished.
So on top of everything else, Mark Foley is an artist?
Who knew.
My boss and I were making our way under the Madison Square Garden sign to Penn Station the evening of the last “farewell” Babs concert. Monday night, the boss was chugging through the patchouli there again. Her take: the fans still wear the same faked-out “ethnic boutique” clothing and titter the same celebrity-obsessed titter as they did years ago.
Only the performer has allowed time to change her, for the worse, apparently. The drool-cup legions of fans remain forever young, or as we might understand it, immature.
Now it remains only for the Dixie Chicks to weigh in. Can’t wait to have them tell me that freedom of speech means keeping your mouth shut when your “concert” dollar gets diverted for juvenile political commentary.
If these are liberated women, hand me my housedress and frilly apron. On my blog I threatened to sue for false advertising if Babs made good on her threat to do this last, ultimate, final, bye-bye, peekaboo I’m really going this time tour. Want to join the class action lawsuit?
La Barbra … portrayed the President as “dumb.”
This from a woman who can’t spell her own name.
“Streisand noted that ‘the artist’s role is to disturb,’”
Actually, I thought part of the artists role, aside from the continual development of human appreciation of the aesthetic, was to stimulate thought. Anyone can “disturb”, but there’s little purpose to disturbing without inducing rational debate.
Too many believe that their job is done by just agitating and “drawing attention”. That’s the same as believing that being at the Start line is somehow equivalent to actually running the race.
The anti-yentah yentah.
“the artist’s role is to disturb”…this is something that is often said, but rarely thought about coherently. See my post Art, Discomfort, and Dehumanization, which references thoughts by novelist Mark Helprin.
As an actor I was always told by my betters that ART is about digging deep into the nasty bowels of humanity, exposing all the darkness, ridiculing purity then spew it onto the audience as a form of condescending enlightenment.
The poet killed ART when it became so full of self-serving excrement.
I was at the concert, but my wife decided it was time to leave about a minute after the GWB impersonator appeared on stage — so I missed the fun parts of the audience interaction.
I had read about this part of the show and warned the missus, but she was still unprepared. And I was willing to stay to lend my voice to the Bronx cheers (a NY tradition), but she wanted to remember Babs as a great artist (this was the first time she saw her live) — and not as an idiot.
So I missed the fun. I wonder if anyone asked Babs to quote Shakespeare? Or why, with her 3-and-a half years of high school, she imagined herself to be the intellectual superior of our President? Or why she needed to imagine it?
Want my critcal review? Babs is 64 and while she retains and exhibits prodigious talent, she doesn’t have the voice she had. Her phrasing and timing and pitch are all still perfect, but at least early on, she was “singing in her throat”. She has lost some range and I think some of the songs were in a lower key than her recordings. And she avoided the more challenging songs from her repetoire (no comparisons between her and Betty Buckley at this concert, please).
And, she doesn’t appear to have trained anything other than her voice for this concert tour. Now, few of us in our sixties have silouettes similar to ourselves in our twenties — but, BUT, given her wealth and schedule she could have and should have hit the gym and locked the fridge in preparation for these shows. It probably would have helped her singing, too. And her dress(es) were simply terrible (but Omar, the tent maker, has his limits, too).
As for her second act (Il Divo), the boys have marvelous voices, but abysmal phrasing. When they sang in English, it sucked. And they made the unfortunate choice of covering “My Way” as a tribute to the Chairman of the Board. What a mistake!
“La Barbra … portrayed the President as ‘dumb.’ This from a woman who can’t spell her own name.”
And who cannot tell the difference between Shakespeare and the scribblings of a high school sophomore.
Remember moron Otto in “A Fish Called Wanda”?
She cannot possibly believe that there’s anything edgy about such juvenile mockery. Nor can she truly believe that such antics would persuade anyone in the country to rethink their politics.
It’s pure self-indulgence.