{"id":161,"date":"2011-06-12T17:51:32","date_gmt":"2011-06-12T20:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/?p=161"},"modified":"2011-06-21T05:47:14","modified_gmt":"2011-06-21T08:17:14","slug":"161","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/2011\/06\/12\/161\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists? Who Needs ‘Em!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Update<\/strong>: <\/em>Thank you Tyler for pointing out the link doesn’t work anymore!\u00a0 To view the interview, use the following links:<\/p>\n

Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n

I urge you to view both parts, it’s lengthy but worth it to get a full grasp of the interview.<\/p>\n

(click photo to see source<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Words don’t begin to describe how utterly at loss I was while watching the SUN TV interview between Canada’s foremost interpretive\/modern dancer Margie Gillis and Canada’s Sun TV “journalist” Krista Erickson.<\/p>\n

To view the interview, click here<\/a> .<\/p>\n

As an aspiring journalist and as a human being, this interview not only offends me but also puts be somewhere between a protest and a rage blackout.<\/p>\n

Enlighten\u00a0 me here, I’m just a cultural philistine. – Krista Erickson<\/em><\/p>\n

There are art forms that I don’t understand – abstract art… I don’t get it.\u00a0 Modern dance … I don’t get it.\u00a0 Does that mean that it is any less art than any other form comparatively speaking?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

This interview between Krista Erickson and Margie Gillis is quite possibly the most ridiculous think I’ve ever seen.\u00a0 Not only was Gillis’s interview wrought with snide remarks and a downright disrespectful and ignorant attitude it made me lose a little hope in journalism everywhere.\u00a0 To me, an interview like this should be informative, teaching the audience about Gillis’s field, maybe actually giving her a FAIR interview, not a 21 minute attack ad.\u00a0 This was worse than watching O’Donnel and Hesselbeck argue on the View… at least Hesselbeck knew when to shut up.<\/p>\n

“We are, I thought a compassionate society; I don’t think that anymore.\u00a0 No we are good at masking things, we are good at not taking responsibility now.” <\/strong><\/em>– Margie Gillis.<\/p>\n

This quote by Gillis says a lot, and Erickson’s attack on her for it just proves Gillis’s point.\u00a0 This entire interview proves her point.\u00a0 Erickson’s continual attack on Gillis about arts funding is honestly heartbreaking.\u00a0 We has human beings share art collectively throughout every culture.\u00a0 It is something that marked us as uniquely human during human prehistory.<\/p>\n

What I want to know, is how Gillis’s quote on compassion relates to the loss of soldier’s lives?\u00a0 I think Erickson needs to pick up a dictionary and look up the definition of compassion, because she is severely lacking in it.\u00a0 I feel like at any moment, Bush, Bill O’ Reilly and Beck are going materialize out of the thick neo-Conservative vapour forming around Erickson’s perfectly coiffed, blonde hair.\u00a0 To draw a dichotomy between soldiers losing their life in a (pointless) war and people “dancing on a stage” is one of the most condescending remarks I think I’ve heard in an interview on Canadian television.\u00a0 Not only does it belittle the arts community, it belittles the sacrifice of soldier’s lives.\u00a0 I feel like I’m watching “How to be an ignorant neo-Conservative 101” right now.<\/p>\n

“why should tax payers be in the business of subsidizing something that is not profitable?”<\/em> – Erickson.<\/p>\n

Hold up, hold up.\u00a0 What did that lady just say?\u00a0 Mommy, make the lady with the pink lipstick go away, she’s scaring the logical through process out of me.\u00a0 This is like saying “Hey why are tax payers subsidizing welfare payments because we all know those no good for nothing poor people just free load off of us anyways.”\u00a0 Right, right, I forgot that that in Canada we are just a bunch of dirty socialists.\u00a0 How dare we care for those who need help, how dare we care something that enriches lives such as art? how dare I allow the allocation of my tax paying dollars to go to a logical woman, such as Gillis, who carries through this interview with poise and grace, as opposed to what?\u00a0 having my tax dollars go into the pockets of privately owned, rich corporations?\u00a0 Right, I see your logic here Erickson, burn the artists while your at it, burn the books too.\u00a0 This isn’t philistine, this is barbaric.<\/p>\n

(On a side note, I would like to point out the dramatic pen throw by Erickson at the 12:39 mark.\u00a0 Mature Erickson, mature.)<\/p>\n

I want to know the logical correlation Erickson tries to draw between the government giving subsidize to art and the government deciding what is art and what is not… I am so confused?\u00a0 I also love who Erickson tries to put words in Gillis’s mouth by saying that the funding is divided out by a “group of cultural elites.”\u00a0 Right, right… so artists are not supposed to decided where the funding for arts is supposed to go?\u00a0 Who is?<\/p>\n

I digress.\u00a0 This interview is an abomination to journalism and journalistic integrity.\u00a0 Erickson as an interviewer embodies an air of arrogance I’ve never really seen before.\u00a0 I now understand why she jumped from the CBC to Sun TV.\u00a0 I would love to draw a correlation to this and the Conservative government, but I do not even think Harper would stoop this low.\u00a0 I cannot believe that Erickson would go to a level as calling Gillis’s art form an “interpretive dance – thing”.<\/p>\n

As Gillis stated, the arts are the crux of the community, it gives and allows people to create and speak through a form that is much larger than words.\u00a0 This interview was quite honestly one of the most offensive and demeaning things I have observed.<\/p>\n

I would rather fund Gillis’s dancing than fighter jets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: Thank you Tyler for pointing out the link doesn’t work anymore!\u00a0 To view the interview, use the following links: Part 1 Part 2 I urge you to view both parts, it’s lengthy but worth it to get a full grasp of the interview. (click photo to see source) Words don’t begin to describe how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2422,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sammy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}