Watching City Hall #429 (2-7-06)

Hellman Cabal tosses gauntlet at Lefty dance community

“Renegade artists …

If you’re going to be a renegade forever,
you will pay, ultimately, for the privilege.
Trash the establishment, if you must,
but, also accept the fact that the establishment
may resent your assaults and defer from subsidizing them.
That is the role you have fashioned for yourself.
Now, play it out to the final curtain - or rewrite your script.”

(Hellman employee, Allan Ulrich on voiceofdance.com)

Boy, you can’t get much more fucking clear than that, can you cowboys and cowgirls? Get the fuck in line or get your balls & clits severed by the Hellman Cabal and their grant making foundations. The utter gall of these cock suckers never ceases to amaze me.

Where’s an editor when you need one?

(forgive my uncensored work & plow on)

Warren Hellman tried to buy off the second best writer in San Francisco a couple of years ago. That would be Matthew Smith of the SF Weekly. Smith recounted how Hellman took him into his chambers and made the ’stipend’ pitch. Just a few (well, maybe more) dollars to make up the difference between what a writer of Smith’s caliber (I agree with that, but seldom Matt’s viewpoints) … a writer of his caliber deserved more money and Warren was willing to make up the difference.

Hellman did the same thing with Ulrich, who wrote the quote opening this column. As a columnist for the Chronicle, Ulrich regularly dissed the efforts of Brenda Way (the Cabal’s new, provisional head of his giant ODC, ‘Dance Central’ complex in the Mission) … Ulrich got fired and went to work for Hellman and his tune changed. Now, not only is Way a genius, but anyone who opposes ODC is in as much danger as Hellman is able to create.

Hellman buys writers like other people buy neckties. He wore Ulrich on the 1st of this month in the online column threatening alternative dance companies. This morning in the SF Examiner, he removed the condum from his Ken Garcia prick (hired years ago to spin Warren’s shenanigans in Golden Gate Park)and spewed a senseless attack on the Mayor’s Arts Task Force.

Garcia argued (not very clearly) that Hellman’s War Memorial Board (Swells who run Ballet - that,s Warren’s wife, Kris - … Symphony & Opera) … Garcia argued that since they got 3/4th of the 44 million the City pours into the arts yearly, they should have had 3/4ths representation on the Mayor’s Arts Task Force. This, despite the fact that the Swells don’t need the money. Between them, the 3 organizations have over 175 million dollars banked in reserves.

Of course, 99% of the artists in San Francisco don’t work for the War Memorial Board. The warning from Hellman, relayed through Ulrich tells them that if they want to pursue radical causes (one would assume given the Cabal’s previous responses that this would include things like running shows sympathetic to the Palestinian cause - there’s a shocker!) … no money for ‘renegades’.

Kary Shulman & the “Little Red Chicken”

“Remember the story of the little red chicken.
When others only wanted to sit around, she planted seeds.
When her seeds grew to wheat, she made bread.
When the others asked for bread, she shared.”

Of course, those of you who know the story of the ‘Little Red Chicken’ know that she didn’t share at all. She let the other animals starve. Which is what Shulman (she is the present City Grants Czar) wanted to get across to the gathered crowd who hadn’t kissed Donald Fisher’s ass to help get ODC built.

What Shulman was relaying, was another threat from the Cabal. They want little red hens like Brenda Way who’ll censor their productions. People, Hellman is through being subtle. He see’s his position as an unassailable fait accompli and he’s bringing down the philanthropic hammer. The word is out through his underlings. But, he left out the most important element of a good threat.

Where do we surrender?

I’m not kidding. What are your terms? Where do we pick up our checks for turning on our comrades? We can’t beat you, that much is clear. We understand that soon the only anti-establishment theatre will be underground and subject to raids by the jack-booted Cabal security forces. We can see the future because we’ve read the past.

‘Venture Philanthropy’ means the death of Free Speech

The problem in our society is that it allows people like Hellman & Fisher to inherit or amass large enough fortunes to control the (as a hobby - their real jobs are exploiting slave labor in the Third World) … controlling the artistic content of everything from the paintings that hang on the walls of our museums (you pay for them, of course) to the editorial content of pretty much all of the major press. The Cabal, representing no more than a few dozen individuals with shit for taste, strides across the world artistic and architectural landscape, levelling irreplaceable palaces and replacing them with piles of ductwork and glass which are then, accorded glowing reviews by grovelling dogs like Ken Garcia & Allan Ulrich.

In Conclusion

Long life the ‘East Village Opera Company’

and

Fuck Warren Hellman

*****
Today’s Board

(Items that actually matter)

Item #7 … ‘one-time revenues for one-time expenses’

Every year the various bean counters who make the Mayor’s budget, underestimate revenues. This legislation allows higher than expected revenues to go for capital projects in supervisors Elsbernd & Ma’s districts. It is that simple. The total money we’re talking about here is usually around 10 times the amount of the Board’s piteous ‘add-backs’ (themselves found illegal last year?).

Elsbernd has been brilliant in sheparding this legislation. He rolled District 5’s Ross Mirkarimi like an old bowling ball when Mirk voiced a desire to keep the legislation in committee an extra week for more study. In other venues, Elsbernd has outlined numbers of capital projects in his district where the ‘unexpected’ revenues can be spent. It is noteworthy that the hard-pushing, youngest member of the Board has been able to direct 25 million to an uncompleted golf course in his district (25% of the Rec & Park budget) amongst other completely unnecessary items pork-barrelled to the City’s reddest neighborhoods.

Item #12 … ‘Off-street parking in C-3 Zoning Districts’

High-end luxury condo Downtown development shepherded through the Board by D-6’s Chris Daly insure that at least 2,000 more cars will be added to the streets around Rincon Hill over the next decade. The Mayor would prefer to add 2,500 cars to the streets. That’s the crux of the argument. For a decent discussion, go to Marc Salomon’s guest editorial in Randy Shaw’s Beyondchron.com.

An interesting turn here is that the totally dishonored Board President, Aaron Peskin has agreed to drive Daly’s C-3 restrictions (so, so, so minor) off the cliff of a promised mayoral veto. It is a phony move being made as a ruse to cover Peskin’s total capitulation to Downtown interests.

There’s no real controversy here, campers. It would be controversial if the City’s ‘Transit-First’ wonks had demanded no more cars for the luxury condos.

Item #13 … ‘Better Neighborhoods Plus’

Is designed to cut neighborhood residents out of the planning process. The Mayor’s Office decided to drive this particularly ugly piece of legislation through Jake McGoldrick who still believes that Gerald Green and Mohammed Nuru are great servants of the people and that the Easter Bunny will be here soon. If you want 28 development lawyers determining the shape of your neighborhood, back this baby. That’s what it’s all about. And, oh yeah, Calvin Welch is wearing the Mayor’s class ring on this one just to confuse the issue further.

Warren, send my check to: