11,580. RUDIMENTS, pt. 612

RUDIMENTS, pt. 612

(lost and found landscape)

I just go on writing sometimes in

the same manner I go on thinking.

Neither of them in the long run

get me anything but the satisfaction

of knowing I've at least put some

idea of my thought processes down.

It's not like I'm weaving fiction  -

I can't just continually add to the

stories and come up with new

things whole hog. And besides,

I'm too much of the suspicious type

to not be able to garner from any

experience I've had some glimmer

of conspiracy or manipulation

by others behind most everything.
It's easy to know a lot of things;
it's more difficult to know what they

mean. All things exist; they just 

don't always have words to go

with them. And, from that, I can

always come up with a tale. Like 
William Randolph Hearst said 
to artist Frederic Remington  -  
'You furnish the pictures; 
I'll furnish the war.'

-

Like currently; this crummy

little town I now live in  -  by

whatever name you want to call

it  - it can be Woodbridge, I guess,

or it can be 'Avenel,' I suppose,

though that's really just a section,

and is spoon-fed everything

from the bandits in Woodbridge  -

they put out a notice, back in

January, (proposals due on

Feb. 4th) for a need and a call

for proposals for a 'mural'

in what they're purporting to

have as an 'Arts Center'  -  it's

really, already, just a playhouse

and kiddie romp room for the

sorts of feel-good and glitter

crap that passes now for gay,

intellectualized, social probity.

I don't care about any of that, and

I'll never see it  -  the folks around

here don't really deserve anything

better than glitter-wrapped shit

anyway; and they'll willingly

gobble this up too.

-

So, anyway, I submitted my own

proposal and rendering, and even

wrote the little synopsis they wanted

telling about the 'meaning' of my

design, how and if it connected to

the town and local concerns, etc.

Like I'm writing to idiots, you

know, so I walked carefully. I

even sent the Mayor a six-pack.

Not really, but in case they wanted

comedy I gave them that too. The

problems abounded  -  mainly in

the process and the nomenclature

they used. Art and merit and

intelligence require certain base

levels of understanding of the

idea of what you're stepping into.

These folks just don't have that

at all. But, I followed process

and began waiting. The initial

'announcement' date was set for

Feb. 11. That date came and

went. The intermediary for all

this was the Barron Arts Center.

(They themselves and the Cultural

and Heritage Commission, or

Arts Council, already soak up

the tax dollars they need and

are supposed to be the reckoning

place for Arts and Culture in

the town  -  in this case they're

being superseded (by further

tax-take and personnel hiring)

by this new, rogue, Avenel-based

disgust still being built.). I had

contact with them and asked why

they were letting themselves get

run over like that and how and

why they had taken on the role

of  'Intermediary' for this process.

(She claimed to be nothing more

than a message-bearer to the

decision people in town-hall

who were overseeing all this).

I also told her that I thought

it was a sham and that before

this had even begun they knew

what their decision would be.

This was just a way of lining

up the shots (not a booze joke,

Mr. Mayor). Further, there were

stipulations in the proposal

that I couldn't figure out, and

I had asked for clarification, and

got none, ever. A few things: After

they were to award the contract

on Feb 11 (never happened) they

gave about 18 days for the 'mural'

to be completed. I said that wasn't

much time, especially as they

themselves had not honored the

Feb. 11th date. I asked if and

what any pushback would be on

the date. (It's now March 3 today).

['Installation of Work : Feb 12

to March 1, 2019']. Nice work,

Picasso, if you can get it.

-

Then it states that the 'mural'

 is not to be painted on their wall,

but on some other art-surface to

be attached to the wall. 15 feet,

by 11.5 feet. It also had to be

'created from the floor level up.'

That too confused me and I asked

for clarification  -  why from the

bottom up? Can it be sectionalized

and put together, in place, there?

Other questions as well. In any

case nothing happened.

-

I see it all, already, as a disguise

for taxpayer abuse. (They also

wanted a cost-estimate for the

art. I at first put $2100, and then

mentioned the variables that would

be contingent on their answers  -

to wit, how to build and construct,

cost of wood, etc.). The town already

has a painted underpass of some

6th grade art that leads right up to

this Arts place. And there's the

train station there too, which they've

already claimed for themselves. So,

my submitted proposal-art, and as

I explained it, touched on references

subliminal to both train and rail

traffic, and the sort of floating,

ideal, bumptious art, already

present at the underpass and

fitting the thematics of the town.

The entire thing was, more or less,

like a dry-hole  -  in that the presence

for satisfaction was there, but it

would sure need help. To date,

nothing has been forthcoming.

-

Now, you may say, why are you so

foul? How can you approach this

is such a fashion? I will tell you,

dear reader, and any Avenel

Hellions who may be reading this.

I draw from a long tradition of,

in this case, activist and in your

face art, running the gamut of

20th century, let's say, art history.

Futurism, Dada, Fauve (these are

all art movements of the past);

Fantasy, play, rhetorical, color,

even, in some respect, Pop.

All of these are to meet the eye

at the eye's level of context  -

transfusing the 'moment' of being

within that 'lobby' of the Arts Center

and coming face to face with 'Art'

at some remove from what's ever

expected, or approved, or comforting.

-

This is why Municipal jackasses

should never be involved in such

endeavors, nor should tax dollars

be thrown around as relentlessly as

they are no being thrown around

at this location. This is all a travesty

and a joke, and I, in my proposal,

intended to head it off,  face-front,

and address it. Of late, there's a

billboard at Amboy Ave and High

Street, I guess it is, atop some

cabinet storefront, near where

Mauro Motors used to be, and it

advertises now the town-run 

day care services available at what

used to be the Woodbridge Sports 

Club, which the town recently 

purchased, direct from the family

that had owned it for many years, 

to run as a commercial enterprise,

this day care segment being part

of it, I guess. When a business is

run as an independent business, if

they consistently do not make 

money they close up. It occurs 

to me that here, in this case, and

in others taking root now, if these

'businesses' do not make grade, 

they'll just be kept going, as loss

and debt operations, and supported 

by tax dollars. And also represent

a great pipeline, in the meantime,

for laundering money, misusing 

costs, and handing out patronage

jobs. Who in their right mind anyway

would turn their child over to the

town to be fostered out like that?

What's going on anyway? Now

the town quacks are dealing both

in 'Art' and 'Children' and failing

miserable at both. Sounds like

abuse to me.
-
The foundation of Governance is
supposed to be in governing. Somehow 
in this town, and in this La Brea Tar
Pit of lost dollars that it has here
created, its interests have swung
to business as venture, with no
accounting for costs of continuation,
nor any audited reporting on the
progress of its profit versus loss
potential. Something is fouly amiss,
when they can't even run a cheesy
mural project yet they make
claim for your kids, alcohol,
gay theater, and a restaurant.
For starters. And then back
that up by the installation of
mutes as yes-men behind
the scenes. (12 f'n years is
12 years enough).