Alison Croggon wrote:
>
> At 8:54 AM +1000 19/8/02, Printmaker wrote:
> >Did you see the little gem on Current Affair the other night
> >attacking the Oz Council's grant placements?
>
> No, I didn't, but it doesn't surprise me. What was the line? Evil
> bludger artists wasting taxpayer's money?
Yes, coupled with "is this art". The three examples were a
Brisbane artist who does performance pieces - something
about vomiting milk and honey: Lanterns for an art festival,
and a group of Rap artists sent to Christmas Island to hold
workshops. I was in and out of the room so I missed bits.
But they interviewed "the man on the street' and as the
majority out there wouldnt know contemporary art if it bit
them on the nose, you can imagine the responses. They ended
with the comment that the oz council had tried to prevent
them putting the article to air.
>
> And thanks for your comments - The Gift is due in the shops in
> October, I'll let you know. Don't feel at all like I'm on top of a
> mountain, though! but I'll feel pleased whenever I get to hold The
> Book -
I bet you will! I think the mountain analogy ends there
though.
I've been reading Walt Unsworth's History of Everest.
Interesting statistics, In order to acheive 244 successful
summits between 1921 and 1989, there were 103 deaths above
base camp and 46 of these were from Nepal. If you get to the
top, as of 1999, you have a 7.4% chance of dying on the
descent if you are a woman and 3.2% if you are male. The
west apparently still thinks of sherpas as a disposable
resource - Joe Simpson's book "dark shadows falling" where
he discusses climbing ethics, has a photo taken by Karl
Huyberechts of the south col, taken in 1989. THe col is
littered with empty oxygen bottles, tents etc and the corpse
of a sherpa.
Its a necessity on most routes that you have to step over
bodies. Chomolungma, the mother goddess, is a graveyard and
a rubbish tip.
josie
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