Cultural Wasteland

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Jonathon Burnside

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Aug 3, 2024, 2:57:35 PM8/3/24

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I recently read a review of a new book on the 19th century writer Henry James. The book is The American Scene, written by James on his return to his homeland after twenty-some years in England. In this travelogue, James writes despairingly of America as a cultural and moral wasteland, due to its hopelessly middle class values and ideals.

Is it not more insightful to associate the middle class with opportunity? Opportunity denied by aristocratic, landlord, rent-extracting societies? Opportunity afforded by enterprise? By middle class employment? By saving accounts, share ownership and buying houses? By public education, made possible by rising levels of GDP, generating taxes for governments?

If Adam Smith and Mencius are correct about our human nature having powerful and elegant moral sentiments, then especially those in the middle class can aspire to moral excellence and cultural elegance.

A German mate of mine loves living in Australia. He's crazy about the weather, the year-round sunshine. He raves about the lifestyle, the fact he can walk to work in the morning and then cycle around the park in the evening.

Um, yes we do. Don't we? It's popular to cringe at Australian attempts at culture, but surely we have something to boast here apart from good weather and former sporting glory. Surely we host some events or festivals that demonstrate cultural significance.

This event isn't just a couple of comedians over a few nights, it's a festival that takes over the whole city in Melbourne. While its Sydney counterpart seems to be a sideshow in wider city life, the Melbourne Comedy Festival is inescapable. Want to learn about how Australia really sees itself? Go see a comedian.

You could select any one of the Woodford Folk Festival, Meredith Music Festival, Falls Festival, East Coast Blues and Roots or plenty of others, but my favourite Australian music event has to be Splendour. Held over a couple of days in Byron Bay mid-year, its laidback vibe is everything that's good about Australian music and festival-goers.

It's hard to hold up a bunch of farm animals being jockeyed by school kids as high culture, but this is fun all the same, and a trip to Barcaldine for the annual races is a journey into "real" Australia. Your visiting friends can smash a Fourex or two, have a punt and see how people amuse themselves in the country.

A full MCG, a party atmosphere created by 90,000 people on summer holidays, the cream of world sporting talent on the pitch, the taste of a cold beer in the hot sun, the first illegal Mexican wave, the juicy slices of watermelon, the playful banter with the opposition fans ... all of these things are perfect distractions for the fact that we're not very good at cricket anymore.

Whether it's the serious arty award or its tongue-in-cheek spin-off, this is how to show those skeptical foreign buddies of yours that Australia possesses more than just a love of sport and ale. We have an arty side; there's creative talent here. A stroll through the Archibald Prize exhibition or the Bald Archy should confirm that.

More creativity! Tropfest, the annual short film festival, isn't just a great way to introduce your mates to Australia's filmmaking prowess, but it's also the perfect excuse to sit in the park on a warm evening and share a bottle of wine with them. Everybody wins really.

Again, this isn't high culture. It's not a trip to the Opera Garnier, nor is it even a genteel afternoon at Royal Ascot. But it is a lot more fun. Birdsville, a small town snugly tucked into the middle of nowhere, comes alive for the races, when the party atmosphere often distract from the event itself (What race?). It's country Australia at its most boisterous, and it's well worth the trek out west.

It might be Sydney's Royal Easter Show, or Brisbane's Ekka, or Perth's Royal Show \\u2013 doesn't really matter. The annual shows in any Australian city are a microcosm of rural culture brought to the big city, as blokes in cowboy hats rub shoulders with prettied-up urban types. Oh, and the Ekka once had a pig that jumped off a diving board. Now that's culture.

What began simply as a gay rights march has morphed into one of the world's great parties, when Sydneysiders of all sexual orientation come out in support of the gay community and in support of having a really, really good time. This country can seem a stuffy, overly officious place sometimes \\u2013 Mardi Gras is the perfect antidote.

On Monday, Nottingham City Council approved cuts across a range of services in a bid to find more than 36m in savings between 2024/25 and 2027/28. The council is facing a 53m gap in its finances this year.

The cuts include the loss of more than 500 jobs, along with a 100% reduction in grants to cultural institutions, including two art galleries: Nottingham Contemporary and New Art Exchange. The culture cuts will save the council 198,000, or 0.02% of its overall budget.

Chaired by the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association (CLOA) and representing local government, the alliance will bring together the principal representative organisations for local government to provide a collective voice for local government cultural services.

The alliance is seeking to inform and influence the development of national policy for publicly funded culture. It is urging central government to provide a long-term, sustainable and multi-year funding settlement to local authorities ahead of this week's budget, to protect continued investment in cultural provision.

GAFFNEY - Actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio doesn't understand the charm of Gaffney. Some Gaffney residents agree with her, but others think she may be just too highbrow for a homespun place like their town. Mastrantonio is one of the stars of "The Abyss, " a movie filmed at the old Cherokee Nuclear Facility near Gaffney last year. She is quoted in the Aug. 10 Rolling Stone magazine as saying she didn't enjoy the Gaffney experience. To add insult to injury, the movie's director, James Cameron, calls Gaffney an "utter cultural wasteland" and claims it would have been more interesting to film in Tibet. "What you have to remember is that any place that the government would install a nuclear reactor is in their minds pretty much expendable," Mastrantonio said in the article. "So clearly you're going to a part of the country where there is not a whole lot happening." To set the record straight, Duke Power Co. began to build the nuclear power plant, but it was never finished. The company sold it. The plant's containment building was flooded for the filming of the underwater scenes in "The Abyss." The movie premieres in Gaffney on Aug. 9. Mastrantonio "is probably too highbrowed of a person and doesn't enjoy hometown atmosphere," said Norma McCluney, who has lived in Gaffney for all of her 50 years. "I just don't care for the people in the town," said a woman who has lived here for 20 years. "The day I walked in here, I could have walked out," she said, adding she did not want to be identified. At the post office, one man called the actress's remarks "pretty rough stuff." "I wouldn't say she made a mistake, because this is a roughneck town," another man said. "There seem to be a lot of happy folks here," said James Taylor, executive vice president of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce. "Different folks view things differently depending on the environment they're from. A lot of people enjoy living here, and a number of multinational companies have chosen to locate here. I think that speaks well for the community," Taylor said. "You can't please everyone all the time," he said. Gaffney, because it lies on the Interstate 85 corridor between Charlotte to Atlanta, offers plenty of nearby cultural activities, he said. The Rolling Stone article will not hurt Gaffney's drive to recruit industry, Taylor said. Corporate executives will make their decisions based on their impression of the community not the comments of actors in Rolling Stone, he said. "We could expect that from the movie stars, as far as I'm concerned," said a man who requested anonymity. "Us being in the South, they don't understand our ways." "If she thinks it's more interesting filming in Tibet, then they ought to film in Tibet," Bill Willard said. Willard called the comments "totally ridiculous" and "unfair." "This is just a small, country, down-to-earth type of town," he added. Leemonda Humphries said her town has nice restaurants and is "down to earth." "I visited L.A. I have visited Reno, and I don't care for tinsel towns," but she didn't come back and badmouth those cities, she said. "What I would say, you can't print in the newspaper," said Gaffney Mayor Vernon Sanders. Sanders said he appreciated the economic boon the movie provided. But the movie crews left some rented houses in an "utter wasteland" condition after they lived there, he said. "As far as I'm concerned," said Gaffney City Councilman Bill Blanton, "this is the finest place in the country to live." "We who live in Gaffney, of course, think it's a great spot. We think it's one of the best places in the world to live," said Dewitt Clyde. Andrew Bobula, a "Hungarian refugee" living in Gaffney, said he agreed with the statements in Rolling Stone. He especially agreed with the "cultural wasteland" quote. Cheryl Blanton, co-owner of the Kaddy Shack Mini Golf, the indoor putt-putt golf shop in Gaffney, said she couldn't believe the actress would put down the Cherokee County town. Mrs. Blanton said that the big cities Mastrantonio apparently enjoys are plagued by "muggers, rapists, and shootings every night." "Who would want that?" It should be noted that at least one of the actors in the movie, Ed Harris, wasn't as critical about Gaffney as Mastrantonio or Cameron. Harris spent 140 days in the flooded containment building, which is 192 feet in diameter and 56 feet deep. "I don't feel I got to experience the area," he laments in the article. Since the crew was working six-day weeks, Harris remembers, he didn't feel like exploring. "I was staying in Blacksburg, and I ran around the neighborhood for exercise and I did enjoy visiting King's Mountain Park." ANNOYN.OID