Tonight: October Art Walk

No discussion on the homeless-sleeping-on-the-sidewalks agreement yet?

Awesome!

One wonders just how much money Pharmaka is making from it’s government and other grants. First there was that “art” depicting Jabba The Hut (which was during an art walk in very early 2006, when the guard outside the Pharmaka door was observed turning away a black woman. (Said guard, when approached, stated that it was invitation only according to the people inside Paharmaka; he should have asked if the woman he barred from entering had anything to do with the evening’s events, as she certainly did; even Tom Gilmore was there, and there is a video to prove it here) Now they are using more movie “magic” to maintain a presence. To be sure, were they to be completely in the free market with that garbage they misnomer “art,” Pharmaka would have suffered the same fate as the SRO that usta be nearby when I had an office in the Valuta. (That was when the area was colourful and disgusting, rather than boring and disgusting.) ‘Net bubble, Realty bubble, art bubble…

Pharmaka does not get much money from any source. It is a space which invites guest curators to submit proposals for exhibitions, as well as a painter’s critique and discussion group.

If there is to be a bubble, it won’t affect them. They operate on a shoestring.

El Nopal is a fine art print shop first, and an exhibition space second.

Both of them pay way below market rent. For as long as that lasts, they will stay. A bubble would be good for their longevity.

Ed: I shot the video. (Apologies if I alluded to it being in Pharmaka.) The reason the entire slice of that event (which was in December, and not early 2007, as I mistakenly noted) was in El Nopal was due expressly to the aforementioned denial of entry to the woman who was promoting the Poet’s Walk, when she attempted to confirm Pharmaka’s participation.

Bert,

I appreciate your position in the downtown art scene, but I must remark that “much money” is still some money and that “way below market rent” is still a subsidy.

When I was doing my thing for the first fifteen years, I took not one cent from the tax coffers, nor did I do the dance to get a few bucks; were it not for my going back to New York several years ago, I would still be somewhere in downtown Los Angeles doing my rag as well as the design production firm, all of which sprouted from a single hand-held case as a dirty-assed punk-cum-crusty teenage bastard far from any home that survived outta the 1980s.

Along with my staunch anti-statist demeanour (and no, I am no more an anarchist than I am an atheist)—which is based in my firm belief (from too much experience in many forms) that that which is given is also taken away—is my belief that if it is worth something, someone will appreciate it. The government-grant-welfare teat is one I will never suckle.

Pardon my passion, but there you go.

I covered both of the bigger two Poet Walks, Ed, and with all that I do in New York and Los Angeles, it is no surprise that such a matter as the confusion of a couple of months was made. In any case, Teka’s fiancé is a close friend of mine, so ask away. The fact remains that Pharmaka as well as all government-funded “galleries” need to be better understood in every way, especially when when behaviour such I described earlier seems to go unchecked by anyone save someone such as my little self.

BusTurd:

Are you under the mistaken impression that ‘way below market rent’ is a government subsidy rather than an agreement made by a private property owner?

That is another choice in the free market is it not – the right of a property owner to choose the rent of their choice for the reasons of their choice?

Or is that too radical a long-term capitalism viewpoint for you to comprehend without your meds?

But mostly you sound like sour grapes that you missed the boat or your art was never good enough to stand on its own – not then, certainly not now.

Hey look, it’s my stop now, hope you remember to flush.

“BusTurd.” What wit, you obviously ornithologically-ignorant jerk.

Lemme tell you, my poor anonymous Ann Rand asshole: yes, it is indeed a government subsidy when what usta be an SRO is no a government-funded art “gallery.”

Show us what you have done, ya schmuck.

Hey BusTard, Pharmaka takes NO government money. None. Where did you get that idea? You are intent on “exposing” some fact that is imaginary.

What is your agenda? Other than telling everyone else how superior you feel about yourself and your experiences…

I was there in Soho in the 70s, the East Village in the 80s, in SoMa San Francisco in the 90s, and now here. What is it that makes you so sure you know something that the rest of us do not?

What are you doing to improve life downtown? You sure complain a lot.

BirdTurd:

What have I done? Everyday I carry tens of thousands of people through the streets of Los Angeles without using as many single-occupant automobiles!

Pharmaka is not government funded. It enjoys a below market rent because the landlord wanted it that way.

Let me guess, Pharmaka rejected your work and now you have it in for them? Get use to it, even if your art were good your personality says “not worth dealing with”.

I’m guessing you’ve heard the line, “It’s not you it’s me?” Here’s a clue, it was you…

Bert,

Since you are one of non-painter members of Pharmaka (as stated on their Web site), I can almost sympathise. (It would have been nice if you would have offered disclosure, rather than prompting me to find it.) Also, as Pharmaka is “a non-profit charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and which is not a private foundation because it is described in Sections 509(a)(1) and 170 (b)(1)(a)(vi),” that is commensurate with my claim of government funding.

And for our poor anonymous behemoth MetroRapid, whose forte it is to be late if it even shows up: I never submitted work to Pharamaka, nor would I do so. My business is print, design and production, and I have been doing it rather nicely for the last two decades, thank you.

Rejected BusTard’s work…lolololol….oh my.

BusTard isn’t a visual artist, he’s an a** to behold.

Now being mean to Pharmaka is very naughty, naughty.

They are a very pleasant bunch of people. They are very nice people. Nice people should have galleries and unnice people should not have galleries.

This is why BusTard does not have a gallery.

He is not nice.

Stay happy and pleasant so we don’t have more unpleasantness like we had in 1992.

Browne

Turd:

Good thing your business is not accounting.

501(c)(3) status is far from “government funding” – it’s a tax status for entities wanting the legal protection of a corporation (when morons like yourself sue above the limits a slip and fall insurance policy) without being able to capitalize through stock sales like a for-profit corporation can.

If anything, Mr. Green’s insight into Pharmaka’s funding only makes you, once again, sound like something which needs to be sent down to the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant before being put to rest in a field on the City’s sludge farm outside Bakersfield.

I’m sure with your two decades of experience in business you have an attorney or accountant who can explain, in your language, why 501(c)(3) status is NOT commensurate with “government funding”.

It’s great to have to pay someone to tell you that you are wrong, those people are called professionals, try being one and knowing when you have inserted both of your feet into your mouth.

Vapid (I imagine your tiny mind will appreciate the rudimentary insult, just as I am sure Bert—in his lack of disclosure—will appreciate your continuing anonymity):

I am very aware of the history of the building in which Pharmaka resides (my first intern usta live there long before the lot of you even knew the area could be infested with “art”) as well as the bullshit semantics of folk such as you attempt to employ to divert attention from the fact that your friends and “galleries” earnestly suck from the government teat. I also happen to be an intimate contractor with the one non-profit entity that has the exclusive contract with every southern CA government agency with respect to HazMat, I need no accountant to tell me that every so-called status leads back to one thing: a handicap for those who get into the antechambers of power. What it comes down to is this: Pharmaka, like the MTA, would not exist were it not for that maze that threatens with a Minotaur anyone unfamiliar with the figurative tape. Take away the grants, funding, tax-breaks and what-not, strip it down to its Friedman-esque foundation, and I will be able to move back into the Valuta in about half a second and live there at a seventh of the rent of when I even lived on 7th Street. Or am I incorrect in thinking that Mr. Friedman meant to get the middle-class head to turn the other way while he pick-pocketed their purse in order to pay Mother Government to proffer her milk?

Insult away, my poor, vacuous schmuck; in any case, let it be known you have been bested by what you imply is a retard.

BusTard, there is absolutely no need for me to “disclose” anything to you or to anyone else. This is not a government forum, or a legally binding contract.

To get so bent out of shape over a small, struggling non-profit gallery as if it was the death of all affordable commercial space in the city is completely asinine.

You sucked at the teat of cheap, market rate space for many years. Things change. Get over it. To get indignant about other people trying to make a go of it is just a bitter, angry cheap shot. Go move to Detroit, or Newark, where you can find all the cheap space you want.

What I like about BusTard is her myopic view of the world.

Bested? That’s language my lily white grandmother might have used. Maybe I’ve got BusTard (B.s. for short) all wrong – it’s not sour grapes she’s spouting but senility.

At least now I know which contracts not to renew now so B.s. can live without her connection to the government teat…pride, gets ‘em every time.

BusTard is a he not a she. He has a blog, you know.

Technically BusTard is not a he or she, but is what I would like to call a it. BusTard would best be described as a sort of hairless wookie (you know from the original Star Wars.)

That would be the best way to describe the BusTard.

BusTard writes for my blog www.thebusbench.com, which is the electronic part of my magazine, Shame Train LA.

I’m taking submissions ideas and stories (if you’re not a pr, marketing or ad person), oh and I pay just throwing that out.

Also I am a girl.

I try to make sure BusTard behaves around the online world, but it’s a hard job.

Browne Molyneux

Well, it’s good news that BusTard has a handler. It certainly needs one.

Darn it. Thought sure it was the Pretender.

BusTard is a very bad wookie. I think I’m going to spank it right now. I’ll videotape it and put it online. Maybe I will have a spank BusTard party.

Would you come Bert? I like your gallery and oddly considering all of the galleries in that section of downtown yours is one of only two that I like for the art. I like the others ones just fine, but mainly for the free wine and cheese aspect of them.

My favorite indy gallery is Highland Park’s Another Year in LA. David Stone is God or at minimum very clever if God is too much of a adjective.

I like LMAN and L2kontemporary also, but that’s another section of downtown…

Browne

Wow, BusTard almost looks like Bert w/glasses:

http://www.shametrainla.com

Well, Browne, thanks for that endorsement. David Stone is a good friend, too.

Sure, I’d come to the party.