Page 10-Wednesday, July 19, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Abolish the million-dollar typo!
By JEFFREY SELBST
Ann Arbor cares passionately about
art. Religiously. For ten minutes every
day. After breakfast, like cod-liver oil.
Once each year, in the manner of
large noisy congregations who make a
big deal out of Easter services, Ann Ar-
bor has an art fair. That is, art of sorts.
This event comes around the end of
July, when the picnics of the fourth are
packed away and Labor Day is not yet
in sight. After all, people get bored. And
Jeffrey Selbst, former Daily Arts
Editor and almost University
graduate, is now a free-lance critic
andfull time crank.
the panhandlers have nothing to
do-it's a slack period for everyone.
The Art Fair satisfies many of Ann
Arbor's most aching needs. It can point
to itself as that hotbed of intellectual
ferment, toujours in the forefront of
American art and creativity. Faugh. At
least the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz
Festival had the good taste to disband
itself some years ago when it became
an anachronism. The Art Fair con-
tinues its indecent existence. How can
this be allowed to continue?
At one time, back when this carnival,
this parade began, the Art Fair con-
fined its noise and its clatter to one
street only, South University. And, to
the surprise of everyone, art was
exhibited therein. A practice, by the
elipse
AnnArborJazzFestival 1978
In Celebration of the Music of
DUKE ELLINGTON
way, long since abandoned. In any
case, real artisans and craftspersons
came to town and displayed their
wares. Not strictly, you understand, to
advance the state of the arts in this
country, but honest-to-goodness Art
goes for real bucks (and has for the past
decade).
Then the leeches, the vipers, the
hangers-on of all true Happenings came
along. About this time the event usually
ceases to be a Happening and becomes
a Happened. This happened. And by no
peculiar happenstance. (This is fun.
Shall I continue?) What happened,
then, was the same thing as happens to
everything in Ann Arbor.
I dread using a word so completely
overdone as over-commercialization
(you know, the one everyone uses to
describe the Yule season) but it's true.
The schlock merchants set up shop in
the wake of the roaring success of the
Art Fairs of past years, and now the
following palette is laid before the art-
hungry as they troop to Ann Arbor:
" East University. Perhaps the most
mendacious. Claims to be art, but the
closest it ever gets is Spin Art, that
stupid thing where you squeeze paint
out of a bottle onto a piece of whirling
cardboard and the result is Art. I beg
your pardon. Spin Art is to Art as Stouf-
fer's Filet Mignon with freeze-dried Au
Jus is to real food. There are lots of
booths with nasty sandwiches made in
the style of anywhere from twelve to
forty different nationalities, all of
whom ought to protest at such gross
misrepresentation. Lemonade on East
U is by and large poisonous and most of
the portions have never even made the
acquaintance of a lemon. But if you like
stuffed animals, here is the place to buy
them. Artistic ones, naturally. Except
that the seams have this way of split-
ting and all the stuffing comes tumbling
out. Not even good sawdust. Little
cheap shards of foam rubber. This is
deserved, though, for these animals are
bought mainly for little fat squalling
despicable children.
State St. A garage sale. maybe it
will call itself a sidewalk sale, but no
one sells or buys on the sidewalk and
h p
it's all bad. It's the stuff the retailers
couldn't sell earlier in the summer.
Marked up 100 percent and down 75
percent. A true bargain. Perhaps the
most honest street in this pseudo-fair,
as it makes no claims upon the over-
worked three-letter word beginning
with the first letterof the alphabet.
Liberty/Maynard. Ugh. Kitties
painted on velvet with that sparkly glit-
ter glue applied liberally. Take in small
doses. Had nudes and fake Whistler's
mothers. Sweaty women who paint-by-
number all year and come with arm-
loads of canvasses to sell, all of which
might have been put to better use
carrying small oceangoing vessels
lightly along the breeze. And collages,
too. Jackson Pollack is the spiritual
forebear of this drek. Anyone can save
Burger King wrappers and pictures of
starving children out of old magazines,
paste them together on a canvas, and
make a Social Statement. There are
large oil portraits of clipper ships in
abundance, bought mainly by those
who consider joining the Elks Lodge the
height of their social lives. And
mobiles, too. No, not the kind that may
have been influenced by Calder but the
kind you hang over infant's cribs. One
old guy hasa booth every year where he
does chalk portraits of famous
See ABOLISH, Page 25
Hill Auditorium
September 21-241
THURS, 21st-8pm FRI,22nd-8pm
VIARY LOU WILLIAMS JOHNNY GRIFFIN
STAN GETZ DEXTER GORDON
MAX ROACH Qt./ARCHIE SHEPP FREDDIE HUBBARD
SAT,23rd8pm SUN,24th-ipm
LARRY CORYELL II V I ORCHESTR
KENNY BURRELL CHICO FREEMAN
SUtI RA HUBERT LAWS
SUN,24th-8pm MERCER
MOSE ALLISON ELLI'GTON/
ART BLAKEY DUKE EWNGTON
ORCHESTRA
ra
TICKETS: Tickets are available in one complete festival series
ticket package and will also be sold as individual concert tickets.
FESTIVAL SERIES TICKETS ARE PRICED $20, $25, $30 AND'ARE
AVAILABLE:
-nowthrough September 12 bymailorder
-July 17-22 (Art Fair Week) mail orders may be dropped off at the
Michigan Union Box Office
--September7-24 over the counter at the Michigan Union Box Office
-starting September at all Hudson's stores
I) Limit 10per person
2.) Series tickets will NOT be available at any ticket outlets except
Hudson's and the Michigan Union Box Office.
3.) For further information call (313) 763-1107.
MAIL ORDERS:
1.) Only certified checks and money orders will be accepted. NO PER-
SONAL CHECKS.
2.) Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope with each order
(for orders of five or more,add anotherstmp).
3.) Tickets for Ann Arbor residents can be picked up at the Michigan
Unien See Office starting September 7.
4.) Mail ardes with postmarks latethanSeptembert2will nt be accepted.
SENDOMAIL ORDERS TO,
ECLIPSE JAZZ FESTIVAL 1978
2ND FLOOR MICHIGAN UNION
ANN ARBOR, MI49194
INDIVIDUAL CONCERT TICKETS:
1) Individual tickets will be available at the Michigan Union Box Office
September 12, and at other ticketoutlets September 14.
2.) Mail orders for individual concert tickets will NOT be filled until after
the first day of ticket sales at the Michigan Union Box Office (Sept. 12)
MICHIGAN UNION BOX OFFICE
1st FLOOR MICHIGAN UNION
STATE STREET AT SOUTH UNIVERSITY
ANN ARBOR, MI 4819 (313) 763-2471
Hours: 11:30 om-5:30 pmMonday through Friday
INDIVIDUAL CONCERT TICKET OUTLETS:
Schoolkids Records, both Discount Records in Ann ArborD iscount Records in East Lansing,
Cobbs Corners in Detroit, 8oogie Records in Toledoandat oil Hudson's stores.
A GREAT'
(r lc PERIODICAL SHOP
Just Became Greater
In David's Books, Albert's Copying, and
Charing Cross, we have made available alter-
native periodicals, and hard-to-find journals.
We now have our own space at 336V2 S. State,
above Ann Arbor Music Mart, on the second
floor. Visit our expanded collection of periodi-
cals, books, and posters. Check out our unique
selection of craft periodicals. If you can't find
us, call us at 663-0215.