Separating the Art from the Artist

I was going to write some kind of Independence Day themed missive about nationalism, patriotism, the American Dream, weaving in my fondness for many of the tenets of Social Democracy... alas, I just don't have enough piss and vinegar in the tank for that tonight. But I do feel like typing a little, so instead...

How easy can we separate art from those who create it? Can we enjoy someone's creative work once we're sure his/her behaviors, opinions, etc. register somewhere in the neighborhood of reprehensible? At the moment, I can't say where I stand on this one. Here are some questions and comments:

Mel Gibson has a documented history of being at the very least one savage drunk, issuing some of the nastiest, most abusive, racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic language imaginable. Also, he is a wife-beater. How does this impact your ability to enjoy his work? Mad Max and the first couple Lethal Weapon movies are pretty good, I guess, but... if you're not familiar with Mr. G's body of work - and by that, I write not of his filmography - right here, dude.

O.J. Simpson. Easy to loathe him. He's not just an asshole. He f**king killed a couple people. Plus, he was never any good as an actor and his football career had been over for 15 years before he started murdering people. We all hate O.J., right? Good. Next!

Roman Polanski. To me, this one's a no-brainer, but then, I've never personally been a fan of his work. Rosemary's Baby is a fine piece of cinema, but good enough to give him a pass for drugging and anally raping a 13 year-old girl? Not to me. Sorry, Sean Penn, but contrary to what you've called a "sentence" can also be described as living in the South of France, making films, collecting awards... slightly different than 10-12 in Chino.

R. Kelly. Pronounced innocent in a Cook County court but in the Court of Public Opinion... he secretly filmed himself having sex with and peeing on 13 and 14 year-old girls. The most legitimate thing he's done in his personal life was getting married - to a 15 year-old (he was 29) with a fake birth certificate. I've never liked his music, so this one is easy for me - a notion which facilitates my in-process conclusion.

Should our ability to enjoy the art and our assessment of the artist as a person be mutually exclusive? To some, this is an absolute Yes or No question. Some will entirely separate the two:

"Why do I care if so-and-so beats his wife? The movies/tunes are great!"

Others simply can't separate:

"I will not support that S.O.B. with my hard-earned money. That would be my way of validating his/her scumbaggery."

Or, when the subject in question has messed with children:

"That mother f**ker raped a child - how can I take MY children to his movies/concerts?"

For most, I estimate - admittedly myself included - I believe the answer lies in a balance or ratio between the severity of the offense(s) as valued by each of us on a personal level (each of us is decidedly more sensitive to some issues more than others), and how much we like the art. Michael Jackson was a good example. He was never convicted of anything, but as we all know that money can buy a guy's way out of almost anything and Jacko had more of that that the U.S. Mint, we can safely figure he was physically and sexually inappropriate with children. But we'll never know because nobody ever dropped dime on him (for the right price, a gag order can work). Eh, for the sake of argument, let's say MJ fondled some kids. Most will agree, that's possibly the worst crime imaginable. With many of us, it registers worse than murder because in a way, the offender is murdering the child while also forcing the poor kid to live with it for the rest of his/her life. But!... dude made Thriller and Off the Wall. Also... Bad was not bad at all!

In related news, while few seemed to have had any problem dismissing Gary Glitter for the kiddie porn and the molestation of 10-and-11 year-old Vietnamese girls, thousands of sports fans rock out to his music in football and basketball stadiums on thousands of occasions every year.

My best conclusion is this: its a slippery slope, friends. Climb at your own risk.

David Byrne is Cool

You know him as the singer from the Talking Heads. Since then, he's done a crap load of impressive stuff. click here to see David Byrne talking about how architecture has helped music evolve.

I haven't met David Byrne but I have a pretty cool David Byrne story. In Chicago, I worked a lot of shows for Jam Productions (as Bill Graham was to the West and Don Law to the East, Jam is to the Midwest). Among the great venues I worked dozens of shows was the Park West, a really cool 1,000-person room - I normally worked in low capacities like production assistant, runner, catering assistant, sometimes as a stage hand, whatever would pay the mortgage and keep things even as the seasonality of owning and operating a booking agency needed a cash flow stabilizer. Sometime during 1998-2001 or so, I didn't work David Byrne's show at Park West because I was working another show at another venue - the Sex Pistols w/ Reverend Horton Heat and the Dropkick Murphys at the Aragon Ballroom, I believe (what a show THAT was and what a crazy but very nice bastard John Lydon is). Anyway, not long after David Byrne, at one point I was standing in front of the Park West, waiting for Steve Earle and talking to a stage hand who told me this paraphrased story:

So yesterday, I'm out here to help direct the production truck back into the alley and this dude rides up in a bicycle. He asks me how I'm doing, we spend like five-ten minutes in small talk, he's asking about where to find good food and a cool place to hang and read a book in the neighborhood - really nice guy, you know, he asks questions and then he listens - you know how many people ask a question and then they're looking around while you're answering? Anyway, he asks me if it's okay to lock his bike up to the bike rack in front of the venue and I say well yeah, that's what it's there for. Then he asks if it's safe, and I say yeah, we have security out here all night, nobody's gonna mess with it. Then I ask him where he's biked in from, and he says Oak Brook [20 miles away]. So I assume he means Oak Park [10 miles away]. The guy says, "No, my friend lives in Oak Brook. Whenever I come to Chicago, I stay with him and I bike into the show. It's a great way to see the area." So I ask, The show? You go to a show every time you're in the area? And the guy points toward the door and says, "Yeah, I'm working here tonight." I'm thinkin' this is weird, 'cause I work here and I've never seen him. So he locks up his bike, walks around the corner, and that's that. Later, I'm inside during the show and that's the guy on stage! I recognize some of the songs and realize, that's the dude from Stop Making Sense! Then I see him after the show, say to him, Hey, you coulda told me who you are! Anything you need? He says,"No, everything's great! That Mexican place you recommended was fantastic!" I'm thinkin', doesn't he know there's catering for him inside? And I wonder, does his tour bus drop him in Oak Brook and then take the band to the show? Does he do this in every city? Is it his bike or his buddy's? So, way after the show is done and the place is empty, I'm loading the truck in the alley and I see him unlock the bike, get on it and ride away. I was loading a truss into the truck. Never got a chance to ask him about all this. Dude peddled all the way back to Oak Brook? What, does his buddy not come to the shows? Does his buddy even know who he is?

I have a lot of cool stories from the shows I've worked, rock star and musician encounters and such, but ironically this is one of my favorites and it isn't even mine.

click here for David Byrne's website which, trust me, is cool, full of 411 and not shamelessly mercenary. (not that there's anything wrong with that).