From Celsus’s most recent post:
We have let New Orleans go. This is what leaving a city to die looks like. It’s just that the nation has chosen the most painful, anguishing, sadistic way to do it. A death by a thousand cuts method, certain to bankrupt and destroy the lives of as many hardworking Americans as possible, and salt the wounds with a mock debate about whether New Orleans should be saved or lies about the amount of help we received. Not enough funding to succeed, but just enough to appear like a thin reed of hope, which is anchored to nothing.
His chosen words made me think of the following lyrics from Widow’s Walk by Suzanne Vegaand how I often apply them to my relationship with New Orleans and the world around.
Though I saw it splinter, I keep looking out to sea.
Like a dog with little sense, I keep returning,
To the very area where I did see the thing go down,
As if there’s something at the site I should be learning.
Earlier today I received an email from a local Flickr-er asking me to post pictures to a pool designed for those who could not attend Jazzfest owing to the $45 ticket prices. This gentleman is convinced somehow that Jazzfest, recovery czar Ed Blakely and Anschutz Entertainment Group (and maybe even Shell Oil) are all in collusion to bring in outside acts, raise Jazzfest prices and send the money out of / sell out New Orleans. As far as I know (and feel free to help me out here), AEG was brought in by the Jazzfest organization to manage the festival and Shell made the second weekend of Jazzfest possible again.
We have had so many battles to fight since before and after the flood that you’d think most of us understand the social, economic, political and cultural complexity that is New Orleans, and try not to thicken the plot through poor logic. By no means do I understand it all and definitely do not assert that our recovery administration has the best interest of New Orleans at heart (I’ve said before that putting the development cart before the education horse is not good policy) or that certain officials are not in it for untempered and short-term personal profits. However, to conflate all entities that do not correspond with one’s sociopolitical views and blame them for destroying the city is not constructive, either. This is suicide, along with the murder, by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. It makes me feel that in the all-out war for New Orleans, we haven’t even worked through our assumptions and interpretations, and may never will. Again, I don’t claim to have the “proper” outlook, but am willing to put personal preferences aside specifically not to reinvent New Orleans in my mental image in the name of The People.
Few problems here can be whittled down to or solved based on Republicans vs. Democrats, fascists vs. socialists, conservatives vs. liberals, developers vs. natives, rich vs. poor, black vs. white, corporations vs. consumers, the rest of the damned 49 vs. Louisiana or even Louisiana vs. Louisiana. There are facts, however: Our wetlands, levees, local government, schools, hospitals, roads and people are broken, they can all be fixed and haven’t yet. Even if that overseas aid which we shamefully turned down had been graciously accepted, I guarantee you that a hefty chunk of it would not have seen the light of day and instead vacuumed into federal, state and local pockets. Knowing that more money, committees, political flavors, administrations upon administrations and personal biases aren’t the answer, what are the paths forward? Why are we still mired in tribal skirmishes and mock debates when the problems continue to fester and remain glaringly unsolved? Sure, some of it is completely justified in the name of democracy and sorting ourselves out, but most of it is … what?
As always, I don’t know the answers, but refuse to couch the question in terms of convenient fallbacks. Yes, Bush and his cabal have to go after wreaking damage in America and the world over, Nagin and Blanco are tools and not leaders and every single government and private entity has its share of inexcusable corruption and skulduggery at the expense of struggling and hardworking people everywhere, but amalgamating it all into The Giant Flaming Asteroid Of SocioPolitical Strife & Doom and blaming it is not going to bring our city back. There is a lot more to it – Us. You and me. Our pre-existing and intricately-woven values and beliefs that govern how much we as citizens tolerate in those we put in charge, in each other and in ourselves. How far we are willing to go in terms of responsibility to self and community, and farther. How much a lot of this is more soul-searching than anything else. The questions now are: At whose expense are we searching our souls and figuring things out? And is education (by this, I mean literacy, access and intellectual stimulation, not #2 pencils, school uniforms, tests and college) the panacea?
It’s very unlikely that Ed Blakely has any influence at all on Jazz Fest, its programming or its ticket prices. He’s supposed to be the Recovery Czar, and Jazz Fest recovered quite well without him, and a long time ago. He has nothing to offer them, they have no reason to listen to him.
The three entities that receive the money from Jazz Fest ticket sales are The Foundation, Festival Productions (FPI, Quint Davis’ company), and Anchutz Entertainment Group (AEG, an international entertainment conglomerate that manages huge acts like Rod Stewart and makes movies like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, among many, many other projects all over the world). WWOZ, FPI and AEG split the proceeds of the sales of Brass Passes, of which there are a limited number.
So, of that income, a huge budget of somewhere around $10 million is spent to put on the festival, including acts and their maintenance, staff, sound and stage equipment and a huge security force and everything you see at the Fairgrounds.
Donors like Shell Oil have a great deal of sway as far as getting their name on things and getting freebies and VIP treatment, but they have no influence whatsoever in programming unless a representative of the company gets elected to the Board of Directors. Currently, Joan Rhodes, of the Rhodes Funeral Home which sponsors the Gospel Tent, is the president of the board. Carol Solomon, the chairman of Tenet and People’s Health, a huge donor, is a member of the board. There may be more sponsor-connected people on the board, I don’t keep up, but most of the board are community leaders. As a result of Shell’s huge donation, it would be logical for a representative of Shell to be invited onto the board, as is commonly done in other non-profits. These people are usually more interested in fiscal responsibility than in telling FPI and AEG what talent to book. I think if an oil executive tried to tell the professionals at FPI how to do their jobs, he or she would be met with a blank stare. It’s not worth it to take their money if they are going to want to run the show. The Jazz Fest would be long gone if they booked talent and sold food based on connections instead of quality. I’m sure that in over 30 years, things have happened that were not entirely on the up and up, but that is not characteristic of the very professional way that Jazz Fest is planned and executed.
Frankly, I have the impression that the planning of the acts begins with Quint Davis thinking about each stage and each day and trying to come up with the most fabulous line-up he can think of. He goes to see people perform and he listens to music to decide who he likes. Then he probably goes from fantasy level to reality, like all creative people must do, and he books who he can get for that year, for the price he wants to pay. His programming goal is obviously to present a wide variety of music from all the genres that have their roots in or some influence connected to New Orleans. He also wants to sell a lot of tickets. The only people who work on the Jazz Festival for free are the volunteers and the Foundation board members.
Of the money that is left over after the expenses, it is split (in a formula that I am not privy to, or I don’t remember it if I am) between the Foundation, FPI and AEG. All of the Foundation money goes back into New Orleans. I don’t think anyone who works for the Foundation or receives any of their grants even lives outside New Orleans, unless it’s because of Katrina.
FPI is a New Orleans company that employs local people, puts on Essence Fest, etc. I think I am correct in saying that George Wein, who lives in New York, has a financial interest in FPI. If so, then George is getting some money, and why begrudge it to the founder of the festival?
AEG is not making any secret of the fact that they got involved in this to make money. Their chunk of the money goes out of state, except for what they spend here. They are not the worst of corporate citizens, either. They make entertainment, a very clean industry, and they have supported New Orleans when they could have (maybe) gotten out of their contract if New Orleans had totally tanked.
I think what your reader is pissed off about is the fact that AEG has connections to many acts that would be unavailable or too expensive for Jazz Fest if there was no AEG. For some reason, people think there is some conspiracy rather than Quint Davis and the FPI people having doors opened to them that they never had before. People always think Quint is up to something, but my impression is: big kid in a really fun sandbox that just got a lot better.
As for the ticket price, it’s below average for what is offered, as has been well documented. The Foundation gives out thousands of free and reduced-price tickets to qualified community groups that apply. There are many ways to volunteer.
I too wish there were more local acts, but I think the numbers are due to 1)no more Thursday, which I wish they would bring back, and 2) easier access to more outside acts because of AEG and a growing budget for these acts, and 3) these acts, that we don’t get to see here that often, sell tickets (what can you do, the public doesn’t care, they want to see Ludacris?)and 4) What Quint Davis and FPI want to see on the stages every day. That makes a lot more sense than a conspiracy among the producers, Shell Oil and Ed Blakely.
Thanks, db, I was hoping you would respond.