Arts DEVO
Chico in the Super Bowl!
Pleasant Valley’s Aaron Rodgers.
Look, it’s a picture of Aaron Rodgers! Even though Arts DEVO doesn’t watch football, he can’t help being as excited as the rest of Chico’s freshly molded Cheeseheads about the fact that local boy Aaron Rodgers has quarterbacked his Green Bay Packers all the way to Super Bowl XLV. There’s not a whole lot more to say about football in this space, other than that Rodgers’ story is a pretty great one: Pleasant Valley High/Butte College quarterback breaks school records, goes unrecruited; transfers to Cal and leads them to No. 4 national ranking; gets snubbed by most every team in the first round of the NFL draft; gets stuck on the bench at Green Bay amid the Brett Favre retirement drama; leads his team into Dallas for the Big Game on Sunday, Feb. 6, vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers and …
(Wait, one more thing: Hey, Green Bay, Wis., if the Packers win it all thanks in large part to the golden arm from Chico, can we, like, be your sister city or something? Maybe we could get a cool nickname as well—TeenyTitleTown, USA?)
Say goodbye to art?
What about art, Art? We all know that Arts DEVO is not very political, but he does think that American politicians who don’t place a priority on spending money on the arts are shortsighted jerk-faces. In an effort to reduce the deficit by $2.5 trillion over the next decade, the mental infants of the House Republican Study Committee are proposing $335 million in annual cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, and a $445 million cut to National Public Radio.
Forgetting for a moment that, next to the Earth itself, art has been and forever will be the most inspiring and enduring thing on Earth, art is also a good investment. The L.A. Times’ Culture Monster blog pointed out this week that the federal government’s investment of $1.6 billion each year in the arts yields a return of $30 billion annually in federal, state and local taxes paid by the 5.7 million workers in the culture industry. Culture Monster columnist Christopher Knight put it best: “If you gave me a buck, and next year I returned $18.75 to you, would you think that was a good deal?” Yeah! That’s something like 1,800 percent on the return on a slice of the budget so small it barely registers at .05, or five one-hundredths of a percent. So, not only would the cuts be a job-killing proposition, but even if they weren’t they wouldn’t put a dent in the budget deficit.
Don’t make me come out there, you phony, agenda-pushing dirtbags!
Don’t be afraid to make fun.
DEVOtions
• Online music: Two new local-musician websites—busy MC TyBox’s music and blog (www.tyboxmusic.com), alt-country rockers the Perpetual Drifters’ new home (www.perpetualdrifters.wordpress.com).
• Dance off: The Fractal Crew is hosting a dance party at its arts/performance space (2961 Highway 32, studio 63) Friday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m., with performances by DJ Sonny D, the Now School Movement, Hap Hathaway and Eye-Que.
• Roast of Jerry Miller: The local theater mainstay will be the butt of everyone’s jokes at this fundraiser for Chico Summer Theatre Fest Sunday, Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m., at Chico Women’s Club.
• Rap night: Huge props to Feather Falls Brewing Co. for opening its big stage to local music with its new Hip-hop Wednesdays series (starting Feb. 2). First up, every Wednesday in February, local crew Twisted Strategies.
