Althouse: "When Mr. Miller informs you that he’s going to burn the California and American flags onstage... you know he’s not going to do it."

December 7, 2010

"When Mr. Miller informs you that he’s going to burn the California and American flags onstage... you know he’s not going to do it."

"And if he did, would anyone mind? Flag burning was much, ahem, hotter during the George H. W. Bush administration, when Tim Miller was known as one of the N.E.A. Four..."

Ah, it's late in human history to be a performance artist. But one must soldier on.

15 comments:

Fen said...: Try it with Islam. Or just go away.; 12/7/10, 9:04 PM
Nora said...: "Ah, it's late in human history to be a performance artist."

Why? It worked well for Obama.; 12/7/10, 9:29 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Very edgy. Does he use the "f-word", too?; 12/7/10, 9:42 PM
MadisonMan said...: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!; 12/7/10, 9:43 PM
coketown said...: The man needs a muse. When it's been twenty years since your last breakthrough, and you're just regurgitating what's already been done, that betrays a vapid, uninspired mind that either needs to retire and start teaching visual arts. Granted, it takes talent to offend people twice. Christians and patriots are easy targets, natch, but why not try a group that doesn't hold anything in reverence? What could one possibly do to offend the types of people who would see his show? Eat meat? Vote yes on prop. 8?; 12/7/10, 10:03 PM
Unknown said...: When this moron burns a Koran, let me know because I have a feeling someone will mind.

All over him.; 12/7/10, 10:08 PM
Palladian said...: The so-called "NEA Four" were (and are) tiresome, irritating artistic light-weights, through and through. None of them would have any semblance of a career without the turgid NEA incident and other hyped-up "controversies" to polish their turd-like resumes. The same goes for other 80s mediocrities, like Andres Serrano, the favorite moot point of brainless conservatives who, like particularly stupid carp, continue to take the bait.

Mapplethorpe was the only one out of that bunch who had any talent.

I was once, in the later 1990s, tricked into attending a Tim Miller performance at P.S. 122 in New York. I remember little about it, save that Miller pranced about in his underwear (natch) and asked a member of the audience to pluck one of his pubic hairs.

All I could think, then and now: who wants to waste their time trying to get a boner by enduring stunted adolescents épater la bourgeoisie in crappy "alternative theater spaces", when you're in freakin' New York City where for a few dollars more you can roll around with a real guy who's a lot better-looking than Tim Miller and who won't hang around to annoy you when the show's over?; 12/7/10, 10:23 PM
jr565 said...: Jane's Addiction came out with an album entitled, Nothing's Shocking and isn't that the truth? Considering there is a movie called Two Girls and One Cup about two girls sharing a cup of poo (and vomit) what's left to shock us?
Performance artists of the day don't have a lot of places left to go. Maybe if they burned themselves to death it might be good five minutes of shock. Though, it's already been done in the 60's by Buddhist monks.So I would have to say, shocking yes, but also derivative.
Next.; 12/7/10, 10:57 PM
jr565 said...: Now burning of Koran's that would be shocking. But not because burning of books is shocking. Rather, it would reveal that the artist doing the burning actually had some balls and wasn't a complete hypocrite.

Mr. Miller's next performance art masterpiece - burning George Bush in effigy. Now that is edgy!; 12/7/10, 11:00 PM
YoungHegelian said...: These NYC performance artists -- what hopelessly bourgeois fools they be!

They have no idea of what ir really takes to be banned in Boston (and elsewhere for that matter)!

Behold true subversive discourse:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/660464/posts; 12/7/10, 11:33 PM
rhhardin said...: L fragrare, to burn; 12/8/10, 4:25 AM
lemondog said...: I can do that.

Do performance artists get paid?

I need the money.; 12/8/10, 6:11 AM
LordSomber said...: Again, teasing the bourgeoisie is bourgeois.; 12/8/10, 7:16 AM
LordSomber said...: And it's also SWPL.; 12/8/10, 7:18 AM
William said...: Burning the flag is too extreme in the era of Obama. Perhaps boiling it, or maybe dying it green might be more appropriate.; 12/8/10, 11:04 AM