j harmon wrote: > What can we expect from a city that views baseball and a Target stores as > cultural entertainment? This entire discussion makes my skin crawl, although > it might be allergies...
Now, how much public money went into the Orpheum, how about the State Theater? Minneapolis paid $4+ mil to move a hunk of crap called the Shubert Theater down the street so it wouldn't bear the brunt of the wrecking ball, and the city is pumping how much into the Mann? What was the city/state dollar/land/site cleanup contribution to making the new (and larger with more stages) Guthrie happen? I think the city's contribution to all of these has been pretty solid. The Theater Garage is being repainted, the Jungle Theater sits in a brand spanking newly renovated and larger building, plus there is the Southern, TITR, Mixed Blood, June Leune, Loring Playhouse, Brave New Workshop (whether these entities are City, State, NEA, Foundation Grant, privately funded, or a little of everything) all placed within the city's limits. I think cultural entertainment in MPLS is a-okay. Additionally, isn't the demolition of the existing Guthrie, which if I'm not mistaken is being abandoned by the Guthrie, going to make room for the expansion of the Walker ARTS center? The significance of the current building is that it is the Guthrie, the structure itself is not exactly the poster child for architectural aesthetics (remember its design was born on the same drawing board as those delightful colored panel adorned Cedar West apartments), and the current building will no longer be The Guthrie. No one wants to turn it into a strip mall a Target or a ball yard, a center for the arts wants to create a larger center for the arts. I don't see the loss of culture here. An aside- I am not sure if the sentence in the previous post is meant to say that anyone who enjoys baseball is somehow not cultured, or if baseball fans are hell bent on the destruction of what has arbitrarily been deemed "cultural entertainment"? (If cultural entertainment is that stinkburger the Guthrie attempted to go national with, 'Martin Guerre', than I'll watch the ESPN X Games any day)? If so, that's just silly, because some of the most artistically talented (including people who have written plays performed at many of the theaters listed above), well read, well rounded and grounded theater-attending people I know are avid baseball fans. Baseball at its finest is great theater. To quote Rogers and Hammerstein, "Oh, the ball fans and the arty types should be friends" (when they aren't already the same person). richard carney st. paul _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
