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1. Steynianism 116 « Free Mark Steyn!
2. Aliza Shvarts and All that Art Stuff
3. Michelle Malkin » The Thomas Kinkade of transgressive art

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1. #1
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:12 pm, monotonousboy said:

   Finally! An answer to expensive, ugly cubicles!

2. #2
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:15 pm, Silkyinfamous said:

   I believe the September 11th Fund ended being an organization as of December 2004.

3. #3
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:15 pm, John Ansell said:

   “We need to stop being sheep.”…

   Feel free to jump off the cliff.

4. #4
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm, monotonousboy said:

   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:15 pm, John Ansell said:

   So, “…stop being sheep,” and start being lemmings?

5. #5
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm, Silkyinfamous said:

   What I was saying is the money is in the hands of those that think People come to NY to see Soapbox People.

   ” Oh yea Tom, I went to Broadway, MOMA and also visited the Soapbox People.”

   Lets be real.

6. #6
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:29 pm, MikeOK said:

   Don’t worry folks … I’m sure that someone at the NEA has already earmarked a significant pile of cash for the benefit of Ms. Shvarts and her “performance art.”

7. #7
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:31 pm, greenfairie said:

   So donated money went to support some stupid performance art by a rich girl attending an elite university that has nothing to do with NY or Sept. 11.

   That’s why I’m very selective with charity.

8. #8
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:47 pm, wise_man said:

   I understand Michelle is knitting up one of these for Allahpundit.

   LOL! That was great.

9. #9
   On April 18th, 2008 at 5:50 pm, JeffC... said:

   It seems like the motto of all of these college “art” programs is “Give us money and we’ll insult you, you corporatist bastards!”

   I think it’s about time we recognize “performance art” for the fraud that it is.

10. #10
    On April 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm, puhiawa said:

    I wonder if Yale or Harvard, Columbia or the rest of the Ivy League realize that every time this happens their reputation among real people drops.

11. #11
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:09 pm, wise_man said:

    I get the impression that they don’t give a flying **** what real people think about them and their actions, puhiawa.

12. #12
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:13 pm, figetyfiggs said:

    It seems whenever the buzzword “patriarchy” is used in relation to America or Western civilization you can almost always be certain the person using the word a) has been duped to believe (white) men are evil b) has been duped to believe Christianity is evil because it is mainly the religion of (white) men c) is a hate-ridden feminist or effeminate male d) is an irrational, unthinking fool.

13. #13
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:15 pm, MNUSMCDavid said:

    The MN legislature is funding , or about to fund, the victims and families of the 35W bridge collapse. It’s bad enough the true donations are abused. Now we have legislated forced donations to be abused as well.

14. #14
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:25 pm, Boomer said:

    Yep the God fearing gun totting xenophobic flag waving bitter people of this country should wake up and stop being sheep and run idiots like this twit and the people that fund her out of town on a rail after a good old fashioned tar and feathering. I don’t think the liberals will like it one little bit when decent people finally do stand-up and shout loud and clear ENOUGH!

15. #15
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:35 pm, nyk said:

    I think art is wonderful — especially when it’s truly creative, and not a narcissistic waste of time (e.g., the piece we’re talking about here) — and I even think performance art can be enlightening, informative and eye-opening. But, examples of the kind of self-congratulatory, vacuous, pointless — and yes, dangerous in our post-HIV world — art I mentioned yesterday abound. I just thought I’d share:

    http://www.sfweekly.com/2000-02-23/news/public-enema-no-2

16. #16
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:37 pm, Thunderbird 1 said:

    It’s these patriarchal, heteronormative trappings of a voice

    Congratulations. She gets an ‘A’ for note-taking. These are words that can only be learned in a college classroom.

17. #17
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:46 pm, undrseige247 said:

    At the risk of sounding puerile, a great art project for this skank is do drink a quart of nitroglycerin while standing in front of a 12′ X 12′ canvas. I saw Daffy Duck do something similar on Looney Tunes once…just once.

18. #18
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:50 pm, luckybrand said:

    I’m so sick of this girl. And it seems like the kids with the most manufactured rage against “patriarchy” and the “establishment” and so forth always shout their displeasure from behind the protective walls of the schools most associated with the systems that they are raging against.

19. #19
    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:51 pm, luckybrand said:

    On April 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm, puhiawa said:
    I wonder if Yale or Harvard, Columbia or the rest of the Ivy League realize that every time this happens their reputation among real people drops.

    The school may not care, but we alumni do.

20. #20
    On April 18th, 2008 at 7:03 pm, On-my-soap-box said:

    On my soap box!

    I a sure that people who donated funds to the 9/11 fund had no idea their money would go to this trash so, it does tick me off a tad.

    “I understand Michelle is knitting up one of these for Allahpundit.”

    She is not knitting him an iPhone?

21. #21
    On April 18th, 2008 at 7:12 pm, BrianNY said:

    Long before “bridges to nowhere” and other pork-crap, I always thought that taxpayer funded “art” was a big scam. If creative content can’t sell in the free market, why subsidize it?

22. #22
    On April 18th, 2008 at 7:12 pm, Fat Jolly Penguin said:

    On April 18th, 2008 at 6:09 pm, wise_man said:
    I get the impression that they don’t give a flying **** what real people think about them and their actions, puhiawa.

    True, despite their wild bloviations every time someone’s feelings might be hurt.

    /’scuse me, not just someone’s feelings, but liberals’ feelings

23. #23
    On April 18th, 2008 at 7:17 pm, Django said:

    “heteronormative”…LOL. That reminds me of a wacko, hyper-feminist ex who liked to use the word “connubial” as a slur and insult. She’s now a women’s studies professor on the east coast. Big surprise, eh?

24. #24
    On April 18th, 2008 at 7:21 pm, zorro said:

    I understand Michelle is knitting up one of these for Allahpundit.

    Ha! I would love to see that pose. Is there a pocket for the Newcastle?

25. #25
    On April 18th, 2008 at 7:58 pm, On-my-soap-box said:

    Off topic

    Hey, see-dubya. Gov Crist signed a bill making it unlawful for employers and stores to search you and your vehicle illegally for weapons! Just a plug for a gun thread!

    OT - what were we talking about again - P3AT’s?

26. #26
    On April 18th, 2008 at 8:04 pm, nbarry said:

    It’s this sort of thing that gives charity a bad name. Government grants of this nature are pork, pure and simple. And how about scrutinizing foundations and their grants?

27. #27
    On April 18th, 2008 at 8:17 pm, inspiredhome said:

    I’m getting a better quality education at my local community college. Yale has all the prestige of wanton waste.

28. #28
    On April 18th, 2008 at 8:26 pm, Free ThinkerNY said:

    Aliza Schvarts next art project involves Draino enemas and electro-shock therapy.

29. #29
    On April 18th, 2008 at 8:42 pm, ajmontana said:

    Free ThinkerNY said:
    Aliza Schvarts next art project involves Draino enemas and electro-shock therapy.

    Too bad it’s not Russian Roulette.

30. #30
    On April 18th, 2008 at 9:28 pm, TexasTiger said:

    From Wikipedia:

    Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam) was the first known psychiatric hospital in Europe, founded in London in 1247 and by 1403, had begun accepting social outcasts, the “crazy people”, “lunatics” and those who just couldn’t stay hidden in society anymore. It soon became infamous for its cruel treatment of the insane, and in the 18th century would have outsiders pay a penny to come and watch their patients as a form of torturous entertainment.

    Today, thanks to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, we can see for free what 18th century Englishmen had to pay for.

    Progress!

31. #31
    On April 18th, 2008 at 9:36 pm, undrseige247 said:

    Too bad it’s not Russian Roulette.

    Skanko playing Russian Roulette with a Walther P99 semi-automatic would be better.

32. #32
    On April 18th, 2008 at 9:43 pm, Sergeant Tim said:

    On-my-soap-box (#20) said:

    I a sure that people who donated funds to the 9/11 fund had no idea their money would go to this trash so, it does tick me off a tad.

    Not quite. The money was from taxpayers, a piece of the $20 billion in post-9/11 Congressional funding to New York.

33. #33
    On April 18th, 2008 at 10:01 pm, JohnnyD said:

    “We have this huge f—ing institution telling us: ‘That’s what power looks like. That’s what empowerment looks like.’ It’s these patriarchal, heteronormative trappings of a voice, of a right to speak, but really I think we should think more about it,” the Yale student said, according to a video posted on YouTube but removed last night. “We need to stop being sheep.”…

    Herr Frankenstein says,”These are the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind…”

    I’m as anxious to be done with Aliza Schvarts and her various outputs as you are.

    I’m more than done with her.

    Move along folks, nothing to see here.

34. #34
    On April 18th, 2008 at 10:19 pm, undrseige247 said:

    What they’ll be saying in 2060:

    Yale was once so secular that there was not thought to have more than a handful of Christians in it. But when God’s Spirit breathed upon the people, the school radically changed.

35. #35
    On April 18th, 2008 at 11:01 pm, ProtestShooter said:

    I’m pretty sure her 15 minutes are up already.

36. #36
    On April 18th, 2008 at 11:46 pm, everett_mansfield said:

    Heh.

37. #37
    On April 18th, 2008 at 11:48 pm, everett_mansfield said:

    Aliza Schvarts next art project involves Q-tips and maple syrup.

38. #38
    On April 19th, 2008 at 1:35 am, Straight_Talk_Luigi said:

    Seriously, though, I’m not outraged at this; it’s just sad. The “Soapbox Project” itself doesn’t sound that objectionable, except for its gimmicky “performance art” character: people stacking up soapboxes and ranting for one minute each in Manhattan’s Federal Hall.

    It’ll be interesting to see how many pro-Islamic ones there are. “Oh, no, it’s the terrorists who are giving Islam a bad name, not CAIR, we want sharia law here, but’s not as bad as you think, cause Allah wills it.”

    Keep your eyes open for that. I know I will.

39. #39
    On April 19th, 2008 at 3:33 am, ent said:

    For those of you who might want to experience the whole, rambling, incoherent speech that is no longer available, an anonymous user at moonbattery.com has kindly transcribed it for us:

    “So empowerment is important, and this man has a point. We have an institution that infringes upon the rights of the individual; that’s really what’s at issue here. We’re talking about privacy of your own personhood. Privacy of your own selfhood versus the hegemony of power that surrounds us. Speech is a tool against that power, and it’s really one that’s kind of dwindling fast. This is kind of an aside, but I just kind of wanted to say something about it. It’s really funny to me and I think it’s like a good metaphor about how, you can give people these boxes, and you can give them the right to speak, but you can’t make them make themselves heard. You know when people get up and just talk really quietly? None of us care. None of us hear them. Right? And that’s a problem. It’s a problem of sort of institutionalization. We’re used to things being marketed toward us. You’re used to someone getting up here, making grand gestures and getting your attention. And, you know, we’re conditioned that way. And why are we conditioned that way? And, you know. I think it’s already been touched upon, but I’ll just reiterate: Because we have this huge [expletive removed] institution telling us that’s what power looks like. That’s what empowerment looks like. It’s these patriarchal, you know, heteronormative trappings of a voice; of a right to speak. But really, I think we should think more about it. And I kind of got up here before, and talked about feminism, and sort of thinking about these larger issues, and what I’m really talking about –and what we’re both talking about—is sort of the right of your own personal self-expression. The right of your own selfhood, you know. And you…you got up here and talked about that too, you know? We’re all people. We all have interior spaces in our mind. And the only way we can ever express that is by externalizing it in speech. And you know, there are powers that want to stop us. There’s an institution around us, and we’ve all become used to sort of using those trappings of the institution to express ourselves. Using their language to put our thoughts in; which is wrong. This is where creativity comes in. This is where art comes in. This is where politics comes in. Strangely: The creative art. I think we need to sort of think about how we should really use new tools, innovate, express ourselves, because we’re all individual, unique people. Strangely, even though we all kind of look the same, and talk the same these days, and are told what to do by everybody and we follow like this man said: Like sheep. We need to stop being sheep. We need to figure out what it is we want to say and how we want to say it. Because that’s just as important. It’s not enough to have the right to say it if you don’t know what you’re going to say, and you don’t know how you’re going to make yourselves heard. This is a problem with feminism. This is a problem with queer rights. This is a problem with racism. This is a problem with every “ism.” You don’t have a language. They’ve taken language away from you. They’ve made it their own. You only have the institution. You have to work actively, creatively, innovatively to dismantle it. Complacency is over. Think. We need to think more creatively about this. I think this is the realm of art. I think people have to be like…stop being so dismissive about what art is; it has to stop hanging on the wall. It has to be something lived, breathed, every day.”

40. #40
    On April 19th, 2008 at 6:40 am, Tennyson said:

    BrianNY:
    If creative content can’t sell in the free market, why subsidize it?

    Oh please. I’m an Artist, so let me explain it to you.

    Art is the spokesmodel of Culture, which is something the Elite use to lord over the peasants like you. You may think you have a culture but it’s just too distasteful and un-influenced by the Ivy League for the Quality People to regard with anything other than disdain.

    Culture - Elite Culture, that is - can’t possibly survive in the toxic environment you morons provide, so the State must step in and subsidize it.

    Left to their own devices ordinary Americans might think that Art should be be a vehicle for the conveyance of Beauty. Eeeeuw. How pedestrian! How un-evolved!

    Current Art exists to advance the Leftist agenda. Bitter clinging smalltown godguns hicks occasionally dare to question it so that means your tax dollars must be forcibly taken from you to fund it.

    You’re too stupid to pay for it on your own. But you must. For the sake of Culture.

41. #41
    On April 19th, 2008 at 8:53 am, ArmywifeArmymom said:

    Did she end that speech with a “Like … It’s kind of like for sure, ya know!”

    What a moron. She has not a shred of substance. She is the quintessential “Feminist-Pop-Tart.” Her persona has been shaped by others, her opinion is nothing more than lyrics she has memorized, and she has a mental disorder. Totally.

42. #42
    On April 19th, 2008 at 9:38 am, Mooseman said:

    I consider myself an artist, photography is my medium. After reading and seeing what this “artist” has done. It is obvious she has no talent in traditional arts like painting, sculpture, or photography otherwise she would be doing something like that, over the dreck she is doing.

    Her work is art like having a Cross in a jar with human waste is art, which was disgusting and appalling. These “works” are not art, they are the product of someone without talent who is not told they lack talent. Needless to say, neither of the two works are art in my eyes nor in the eyes of many people on the street.

    It is wrong that the 9-11 fund gave her funding for her “artwork”.

    She wasted twelve years in her boarding school and four years in college. Her parents must be bubbling with excitement over her “accomplishments”.

43. #43
    On April 19th, 2008 at 11:17 am, Storm Chaser said:

    Tennyson, I like your post. Art certainly should be “a vehicle for the conveyance of Beauty.” You would love Carhenge, near Alliance, Nebraska. It is cars stacked on end to resemble Stonehenge.

    Some consider this thing of beauty to be an eyesore. “How pedestrian!” Obviously, those “un -evolved” critics are pedestrians.

44. #44
    On April 19th, 2008 at 11:26 am, DBNinKY said:

    On April 19th, 2008 at 6:40 am, Tennyson said:
    

    “You’re too stupid to pay for it on your own. But you must. For the sake of Culture.”

    LOL, Tennyson, that’s the perfect capper!

45. #45
    On April 19th, 2008 at 7:54 pm, reine.de.tout said:

    It’s these patriarchal, heteronormative trappings of a voice, of a right to speak, but really I think we should think more about it,”

    Well, I’m a dumb-as-dirt southern gal - I truly can’t figure out what the heck that statement is supposed to mean. Where in the world do people learn to talk like that, and do they realize just how idiotic they sound?

46. #46
    On April 19th, 2008 at 8:00 pm, reine.de.tout said:

    At comment #39, On April 19th, 2008 at 3:33 am, ent said:

    For those of you who might want to experience the whole, rambling, incoherent speech that is no longer available, an anonymous user at moonbattery.com has kindly transcribed it for us:

    ENT, I’m not going to copy the whole rant that you posted, but thanks for posting it. That is the most ridiculous bunch of tripe I’ve ever heard in my life. It says nothing. It means nothing. It is incredibly empty - like this chick’s head, I guess. She basically seems to be going on and on about her “freedom” to “express” her art any way she sees fit - what she’s never learned is to apply good judgment, and consider standards of good taste and decency, before “expressing” herself.

47. #47
    On April 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 pm, Dimsdale said:

    On April 18th, 2008 at 8:42 pm, ajmontana said:

    Free ThinkerNY said:
    Aliza Schvarts next art project involves Draino enemas and electro-shock therapy.

    Too bad it’s not Russian Roulette.

    No, can’t do that. Guns are bad, you know.

    Besides, she’s a lib: she would miss.

48. #48
    On May 12th, 2008 at 10:22 am, StandardDeviation said:

    Well, I’m a dumb-as-dirt southern gal - I truly can’t figure out what the heck that statement is supposed to mean. Where in the world do people learn to talk like that, and do they realize just how idiotic they sound?

    As usual for a feminist, she’s blaming men for her problems and taking a shot at the traditional heterosexual family structure to boot.

    All she needed to do is throw in the word Zionist and she would have hit the Moonbat Trifecta.