Well, if the high-class art scene drives @Polyphemus mad, this ought to send him over the edge. 
Not at all. The designer goods market and the New York art scene are merely devices to separate the rich from their cash. They have nothing to do with design or art. I celebrate them.
(Wonder what he would say about my hand-painted designer bagsâŚmaybe I should not ask)
If you want something to exist, and it wonât exist unless you make it, thatâs probably the purest artistic intent there can be. If you make that thing, and other people like it enough to pay you for it, then by almost any definition, you are an artist. None of the above causes me any stress at all.
Where it becomes problematic for me is if you make something, not because you want it to exist, but because you hope to make money. And if you then find that people donât want to buy what youâve made, you expect (even demand) that I pay you to keep on making them, because you claim some sort of special status as an âartistâ.
AhhhâŚgot it.
I think many artists hope to make some money but also believe they wonât make much. A lucky few actually do make a lot of money but, then become trapped in a place where they are expected to make money.
Most artist are only worth something once they are gone.
I think that is likely for the best.
Those few who do make money do so because they offer something people want.
I do understand though, not wanting your money to pay for the already wealthy to have a good time showing off the fact that they have money.
It seems that if the wealthy want to pay big bucks for a top notch performance or piece of art, they should fund the facilities that make it possible.
I guess the reason taxpayer money is used is because it is supposed to enrich us allâŚonly it doesnât because most cannot afford to attend these events. Which brings me back to the defunding of PBS here in the US. PBS has done a great job of using money from the people, for the people. Now the government wants it defunded because they dared to speak the truth and refused to lick boots.
But, with health insurance for the poor ending, help for the poor to buy food ending, and a general snubbing-of-the-nose at poor people, I guess PBS wonât be needed much longerâŚ
If you genuinely wanted to enrich peopleâs lives, you should be subsidising football matches and Taylor Swift concerts - theyâre what the majority of people actually want to see - except you donât need to, because those activities make a profit, and donât need subsidy.
Meanwhile, you canât get a hospital bed in this country, because the hospitals are full of frail elderly people - because there arenât enough care homes for them to go to. The 800 million we spend every year on opera and ballet would buy an awful lot of care home provision.
Maybe if all the opera singers and ballet dancers lost their jobs, they could find work in the care homes - and do something useful, for a change.
Same here. And lately, we are finding out that if we donât go to see our doctor at least every six months, the doctors drop us. Then we have to search for a new doctor and they are scarce. Mostly we see nurse practitioners. So even if we can afford insurance, we canât find a doctor.
Several people I know are currently waiting 3 months for important procedures to check for possibly serious conditions.
And the hospitals are packed.
I didnât even know Frankie could sound or get angry but here we are, no more mister nice boy on the street with a camera 
This amused me. I can imagine the conversation with the next customer:
âCongratulattions! You won a small child!â
âI donât want a child - I wanted the stuffed toy rabbitâ.
âSorry, bud, small child it isâ
Drops and refusing to take on new patients may be getting a lot more common after Mr. Tâs Medicare cuts
And this is not uncommon unfortunately. Somehow, kids seem to be able to pull this off on a regular basis. The first couple of times I heard of it, I thought the parents were neglectful. Now I have begun to wonder if the parents are encouraging them to crawl in and get the toy they wantâŚ
Swamped with moving stuff. My daughter is officially in the back apartment and my son has until August 1 to not only be out, but clear out everything inside the house they have been leasing.
That means going thru the life of a woman who was 96 when she passed.
Granted, he already let her friends come and take whatever they wanted, but that still leaves a lot of stuffâŚ
The house was willed to an organization. This has been a really long process. And I am exhausted and ready for it to be over
Stress and physical exhaustion can be quite unhealthy. Take care. Maybe chill with some No Manâs Sky exploring with lowered (no stress) difficulty?
In the recliner for the evening. Not doing anything tomorrow. Monday, all hands on deck. Having a week long saleâŚeverything must go!
Sale is over. Sold a ton of stuff. Still have stuff there. Will donate to a resale shop that hires learning disabled. It is a nice little store with really interesting stuff.
ExhaustedâŚ
Breaking news: Major AI investor has no idea how autocomplete worksâŚ
But also, well, shit. That article links that this one: People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions, and thatâs some scary stuff right there. The west has a largely religiously and spiritually unrooted (but by no means less needy) population, and now theyâve got access to a chatbot thatâs been trained on pretty much all mythology, theology and fiction completely unfiltered, and it will spout that stuff right back at that population asking the wrong questions in the wrong ways. Itâs the perfect Oracle: Apparently all-knowing, cryptic, mythic, and largely incomprehensible in its workings beyond the basic concepts.
For now, weâre seeing individuals breaking down in delusions. Highly regrettable, but societally affordable. However, I predict that weâre soon going to see the first organized sects and cults springing up rom AI-fueled prophecy. I did not see that one coming, and now that I thought of it, I fear it might become one of the major problems with AI. We really need to start teaching epystemology in primary school. But oh, wait, everybodyâs cutting education budgets left and right. 
And this is how AI takes over the worldâŚby creating zealots. Yeah. Never saw anyone predict that one. 
Edit: is anyone else burning up?
A month of excessive heat warnings here has left me drained, depressed and my joints in more pain than usual.
I canât even stand the sound of the AC when it kicks on.
With the flag and horns and fighting back the stage hand, itâs like this artist is both Bull & Matidore
Great to see, especially amidst all the folk speaking out against the terrorist classification of Palestine Action getting arrested in the UK these past few weeks.
Meanwhile 1000s marched in Dublin (yet again) in support of a terrorist organisation and nothing happened, nobody died or got arrested. Well, kids in Palestine are actively dying while we march.
While hundreds elsewhere held an anti immigration protest outside Leinster house being spearheaded by a former DUP soldier.
Funny how they can put the sectarian violence aside to come together to spread fear, misinformation and hatred towards non white folk fleeing crisis zones.
Should be an automatic citizenship revoke, sorry, you fail to have the Irish spirit, please leave the island.