Stimulus money for the National Endowment for the Arts is supposed to be “restricted specifically to job preservation. ”

But a look at the list of NEA stimulus projects reveals that the money is being used instead for sexual titillation. Fox News reported on some of the eye-opening projects here.

Straight from the National Endowment for the Arts website, you can check out the list for yourselves. Highlights:

· $50,000 to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. The Center’s website is spotlighting “the Emperor’s New Clothes” described as an “… interactive adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes” in which the “tailors are crafty foxes, the prime minister is a near-sighted camel, the councilor is a befuddled old walrus, and the Emperor is a pig” that is “big and pink and loves to dress up in fancy clothes.”

· $25,000 to the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio Texas.

· $25,000 to CounterPulse in San Francisco, California that just held this past Saturday (July 25th) “Perverts Put Out” which urges one to “Join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun!”. The picture accompanying the announcement is a nude man onstage at a microphone.

· $25,000 to the Kala Institute in Berkeley, California. The Institute describes its mission as being “… to help artists sustain their creative efforts over time through its Artist-in- Residence and Fellowship Programs, and to increase appreciation of this work through exhibitions, public programming and educational efforts.” Its website includes a page describing current exhibits with a photo of a man in a jock strap and high-tops dunking a basketball and someone sticking his/her ear through a hole cut in a piece of cardboard.

· $50,000 to the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance in Old Town, Maine which promotes “…authentic handwoven baskets of ash and sweetgrass may be purchased directly from Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance basketmakers at MIBA events.”

· $25,000 to the “Marsh, a breeding ground for new performance” in San Francisco, California. The first two performances listed under the Marshes “playing now” calendar are: “East 14th: Tales of a reluctant Player” and “Lettuce Town Lies.” East 14th is described with the blurb: “Back in 1970’s Oakland, his stepfather forced him to be a straight A, God-fearing church boy – but he wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn’t know dear old Dad was a pimp.” The blurb for “Lettucetown Lies” states: “He’s Gay. He’s Asian. He’s coming of age in Lettucetown, aka Salinas. If that’s not bad enough, he’s got a crush on a hick. If that’s not bad enough, his friends think fun is blowing up a field of lettuce. If that’s not bad enough, he has to sneak to the highschool bathroom to buy drugs and Donna Summer records. Adolescence! It’s fun, it’s lies. In Lettucetown.”

· $50,000 to the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania whose website is promoting “Tabla Ecstasy” that entices: “[B]e carried away to a state of intense joy. Follow intricate drumming as it grows in intensity and be taken away to a different plane of experience.”

· $25,000 to Center for Women & Their Work in Austin, Texas whose website is promoting “The Medicine Show” that is described as: In this interactive, multisensory sculptural installation, Wetzel transforms the gallery into two dreamlike realms, featuring an ambient desertscape giving way to a shrouded spiral chamber. Outside the chamber, the desert scene seems haunted by the sounds of drumming. Inside the chamber, visitors cross into a separate, black-lit world to experience a geodesic drum ritual performed by Wetzel and masked attendants. Ceremony, sand, cloth, mandalas, enshrined objects, lights, smells and sound all converge in The Medicine Show to forge a sensual, tactile interactive experience that places viewers in a heightened state as they cross the threshold between two mystically charged realms.

· $25,000 to the San Francisco Cinematheque in San Francisco, California. The website’s calendar states that next season will be announced in the weeks ahead but the News tab describes recent Co-presentations such as a documentary on “the legendary underground filmmakers Mike & George Kuchar” and thier film “Thundercrack” of which a reviewer raves: “Witness if you dare, the world’s only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla. Ecstasy so great that all heaven and hell becomes just one big old Shangri-La!” First mention on the website’s Archives tab is Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film which includes Peyote Queen. Peyote Queen is billed as: “A classic of the psychedelic tendency … An attempt to visually render the wealth of kaleidoscope visions of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus ritually used by the Indians of New Mexico” … an “… exploration in the colour of ritual, in the colour of thought, a journey in the depths of sensorial disorder, of the inner vision, where mysteries are represented in the theatre of the soul.”

· $25,000 to Jess Curtis/Gravity, Inc. in San Francisco, California. One of their most recent works is the Symmetry Project where nude couples are mounted on each other in various poses. Note in the first pictures nude children are present with nude adults.

· $25, 000 to Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts in Buffalo, New York that is currently promoting the “Many Moons” photo collection.

· $50,000 to Educational Video Center in NY City which in its Mission Statement states “EVC’s teaching methodology brings together the powerful traditions of student-centered progressive education and independent community documentary.” It has made video documentaries such as “Disorderly Conduct: Are the Police Killing Us?”

· $50,000 to “California Lawyers for the Arts, Inc.” which appears to be nothing more than a liberal advocacy group.

· $25,000 to Borderlands Theater Teatro Fronterizo, Inc. in Tucson, Arizona is delinquent in paying federal taxes (see here, last item at the bottom of the page). Recently did “School of the Americas” about Che Guevara and has upcoming “WHAT’S UNDER THAT SKIRT? A BORDERLINE LOOK AT GENDER” and “SHE WAS MY BROTHER”.

· $50,000 to Frameline in San Francisco, California which is described in its Mission Statement as “Frameline’s mission is to strengthen the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and further its visibility by supporting and promoting a broad array of cultural representations and artistic expression in film, video and other media arts.” In January they presented “Desi’s Looking for a New Girl” that is about “J.T., a young Latina dyke, has three passions: her skateboard, comedienne Marga Gomez, and her friend Desi (not necessarily in that order). When Desi’s girlfriend dumps her for a younger woman, she journeys down breakup road with the requisite mourning and attempts at dating and recovery. Desi’s family and friends help and interfere every step of the way, setting her up on an array of blind disasters…dates… with the “perfect new girl.”

· $25,000 to Epic Theatre Center, Inc. in NY City that appears to be nothing more than a liberal advocacy machine posing as a production company.

· $50,000 to National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Inc. in Oakland, California which is a liberal advocacy group.

Where are the smut-ulus police?

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