Confusing “Controversial” With “Tiresome”

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=36980&int_modo=1

Showing a solider in a “vulnerable and personal pose” doesn’t strike me as controversial, but typical, within the arts.

“The billboards ask viewers to think about soldiers, about the human cost of war and about the psychological struggles of veterans and their families, and then reach their own conclusions.”

Well, who doesn’t do that? As someone who was against the Iraq war from the beginning, even I get tired of people thinking those who were for it were simply so, because they didn’t “think” about the human costs, psychological struggles and families long and hard enough – and of course a billboard of a man with his face on the ground will do the trick.

Context can be a valuable asset in appreciating a piece of art, which ever way you come to approve or disapprove of the particulars – in this case, war. Cropping a solider (or any professional for that matter) to his/her psychological struggles could minimize a fuller understanding, and maybe even appreciation, for those struggles.

modernizing the site

Felt it was time to redesign the site. The old site was based off of an ancient blogger template from 2001. It was so old that it was never optimized for firefox, and therefore never looked right in the browser that zillions of people now use. The text was too small and it was hard on the eyes. Ah well, I had nostalgia for it. The new site is basically finished(some of the subpages I haven’t uploaded yet,) and I added a blog which at this point contains an archive of very few meaningful or insightful blog posts…including this one.

Facebook Group…

For anyone interested, ConArtists.org now also has a Facebook Group

sigh, McCain for president

Well, the election is just around the corner. McCain’s barely conservative, but I guess he’s our guy!

what when where why how who cares

Who what when where why… In 2006 I founded the Organization for Politically Conservative Artists(www.con-artist.org), mainly because I had been looking for such a support group to join for quite some time,(which is how I assume you stumbled onto this site) only to discover that in fact no such entity existed. So I started one up. Since then I have received countless emails from disaffected conservative artists throughout the country, relaying their stories of frustration and isolation. Rather than being a typical pontificatory type blog, this place mainly exists to help promote conservatism in the arts wherever we can manage to find any.

Harry Novak, right wing madman?

As a longtime fanatic of obscure, under-appreciated, or otherwise forgotten films, a couple of years ago I was introduced to <a href="http://www.somethingweird.com">Something Weird Video,(probably not a work safe link) which re-releases and distributes bizarre movies from the 1940′s to the 1970′s. I’ve since have not been able to get enough of these dvds and have seen about 40 or 50 of them so far. They come loaded with special features, presumably to compensate for the mediocrity of the feature film(s)they are packaged with. Personally I’m rather fond of mediocrity, but I’ll save that for another post.

Anyhow, getting to the point, what’s interesting is in one of the director commentaries of his film Kiss Me Quick(1964), producer Harry Novak out of nowhere launches into a comical tirade against Al Gore for being a liar and claiming to have “invented the internet” and so forth.

I just found it odd and somewhat reassuring(?) that this hollywood producer of 60′s and 70′s softcore would turn out to be a right wing conservative. Something Weird indeed! Well, not really if you think about the rise of radical feminism, political correctness, and the deterioration of the once great Los Angeles into a third world scumtown. All of those things coupled with his being a self made entrepreneur would contribute to his coming to identify with aspects of conservatism.
Harry Novak, one of us. Something not so weird at all.

behind enemy lines

Every time I’m in Urban Outfitters I can’t help but be mildly annoyed at the abundance of lame global warming t shirts,  liberal books, and other left wing paraphernalia in the store.   I can’t say I really blame them though. They associate their demographic with that of young, hip, cutting edge, femme fatales and metrosexuals…none of which are conventionally thought of as being remotely in the realm of conservatism. We need to make them aware of the “silent conservatives” who shop there, as I’m certain I can’t be the only one. It would just be nice if they carried at least some token conservative items if only to make those us feel more comfortable about buying stuff and less like we just slept with the enemy. In fact, they do actually carry a few right wing products, but they were clearly designed by liberals and merely reinforce negative stereotypes about conservatism(shirts like “republicans have more money” and “McCain kicks ass” come to mind.)

an email…

I got an email from a young actress asking me to post this for her.

hey, could you possibly post a request for me? i need an artist who can do comic book-ish artwork. i have an idea for a poster for the republican candidates, but i am shit at drawing. the email address for people to reply to is conservative.artist@gmail.com thanks! keli

She sent it a while ago, but I just discovered it buried amidst the usual barrage of “erectile dysfunction” and penile enlargement spam emails which now seem to be an ordinary part of life in the 21st century.

Ron Paul for president

Well after careful considerations, I’ve come to endorse Ron Paul for president. He, Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson are the only candidates offering anything that I recognize as conservatism.
Romney would have to be the next choice, only I think many conservatives underestimate how much his being a mormon would hurt him in the general election. It’s not the same thing as when people said Kennedy couldn’t win because he was Catholic.  Catholicism is one of the largest religions in the world, while many people equate mormonism with being not much more than a bizarre cult, something more along the lines of scientology.  People looking at a 2008 Romney/Hillary matchup should take a look at what happened in the 2002 Arizona governor’s race between Matt Salmon and Janet Napolitano before discounting Romney’s religion as a factor.
That being said, I think that in terms of viability the ideal nominee would be Romney with Ron Paul as vice president.  If Ron Paul is not somehow on the ticket, the libertarians will tip the election to the democrats in the general election. If the republicans nominate another big government tough talking foreign interventionist, or bible thumping belligerent, conservatives will lose(even if they win).

The damage Bush has done to the image of conservatism among young people will take decades
to repair. In fact, even the small level of people he may have inspired is still a loss because they will be attempting to emulate his gross miscaricature of it. For every politically confused young adult who is put off by the image of a conservative as a bumbling, warmongering christian hick, there will be some young people who will think conservatism is such and will actually find it appealing and aspire to be bumbling, warmongering christian hicks, thus slowly creating that as reality from what were once (somewhat)illusory misconceptions.

I’m not saying religion isn’t good for the party. What I am saying is that most people who are voting for a president don’t give a crap about gay marriage or partial birth abortion, the two issues republicans obsessed over the last two years they were in control of congress.
And they don’t care about tax cuts UNTIL SPENDING IS CUT OR AT LEAST STOPS INCREASING AND ALL DEBTS ARE PAID. What they care about is controlling the border before the demographics of the country change to where it will be too late and the majority will be the border crossers(California gave it a failed last shot in the early nineties and is now well beyond redemption).

Ron Paul for president if we can, Thompson(if he even wants to be president) Hunter(if only we could have him…maybe VP?) or Romney(only if we must).

undecided 2008

Well, given that it turns out Newt Gingrich isn’t running, I should probably update this to endorse someone else.

The problem is that none of the republicans running are all that appealing.
Ron Paul is easily the best of the bunch(in my opinion) but has almost no chance.

Giuliani would probably be another Bush, belligerent and arrogant, void of intellectual curiosity and utterly useless in promoting actual conservatism. He is “conservative” only on the matters least important to conservatives(foreign wars, etc). Yet he is to the left on the most vital issues of our time(immigration, national sovereignty, isolationism)

Romney is impressive in that he was able to get himself elected governor in one of the most liberal places in the world, but he is mormon and unlikely to survive the demonization and fear tactics the media and the left will use against him if he is the nominee. He’s also a real “businessy” kind of guy, which means he doesn’t care much about ambiance or anything. He will think in terms of money rather than imagination. In other words he would want to put up more
crappy walmarts and such, and do things which benefit mega corporations.

Huckabee is mostly a huckster, and his main appeal is to be able to have the campaign slogan “I heart huckabee.”

Mccain would have been good if he would have won in 2000. He would have crushed Gore.
The problem with Mccain is that much like Giuliani, he is conservative on issues that conservatives aren’t concerned with and to the left on the ones that matter most. Back when many conservatives were not paying attention to immigration or the problems with the U.N.(they should have been) McCain seemed like a fine choice for a non-religious, fiscally conservative republican. He doesn’t now.

Fred Thompson is reliable in every way, but it just doesn’t seem like he could win in the general election. He would make a great president, but I don’t see it.

I’m still undecided.