We interrupt our regularly scheduled advice column to talk about something really important. Not that I mind answering questions about my underwear, but... this matters.
Back in Vienna, when I was coming up through the ranks, musicians were government employees. I myself counted Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, Archduke Rudolph, and King Jerome of Westphalia among my patrons at one time or another. Since moving to the United States, I've been severely disappointed by the lack of support the American government gives its artists. Even today, with the world economy in the crapper, other governments support their artists. This afternoon, a friend put an article up on Facebook. Granted, the article was written a couple of months ago, but when you've lived as long as I have, time holds very little meaning. Back in March, Sarah Palin (who reminds me a lot of my ex-girlfriend Josephine, by the way) went on Fox News and called the National Endowment for the Arts and other important publicly-funded cultural institutions frivolous.
Art is what makes a society great. Art (particularly music. Particularly my music) is what makes life worth living. Take away the little bit of money a group like the NEA is able to provide great American artists, and what are you left with? A bunch of creatively frustrated, out-of-work individuals who stand around all day making fun of Sarah Palin.
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