Charlotte's web

What's really going on with The Artery? Is it yet one more case of the city sabotaging what is creative, original and fun, while shooting itself in the foot?

The unique row of panels has received local, state and national attention, helping cement our quirky little town as an actual artist destination. We continue to garner national attention as the majority of our shortsighted City Council engages in procrastination efforts to kill The Artery.

Is councilman Robert Wagner's "Mayor Joy, tear down this wall" simply revenge on Artery visionary Charlotte Buchanan for speaking out against Wagner's limo franchise when she was on council? Is Patrick Brammer's silence and no-show at the council table fear that a newly selected pretty-police would find objectionable the horribly out-of-scale, nude and devilish statues mounted in his front yard (personally, I'd love them if they were atop Smith's castle)?

Is Joyce Zeller really concerned that these pissed-off Evangelical extremists boycotting our perverted town will lose all that revenue from them not buying her tantalizing, sensuous, body oils, massage creams, lubes and lotions?

And what is up with Mayor Dani Joy, who defiantly spoke up in support of the Domestic Partnership Registry when under attack by these very same zealots?

'Hell and Damnation?'

A recent Fox News story regarding The Artery controversy quoted me as saying "I wish some of these people would lighten up" (Please, no more phone calls from Pennsylvania or emails damning me to eternal hell). Maybe "lighten up" was a poor choice of words; how about "just go away?" Is Chamber president Jeff Feldman really going to let a handful of right-wing nut jobs (you should hear and read these calls and emails) dictate what our wonderful, creative community is all about? These people could find something offensive in a Hallmark card. Maybe to appease the Right the next Artery theme could be "Hell and Damnation."

Back when I was still with the Citizen, I wrote an op-ed piece on the burning at the stake of Pearl Brick. Pearl was the city Festival Director, ran the city Auditorium and was responsible for booking world-class acts such as Ray Charles, Bill Cosby, Emmylou Harris, Alison Kraus and countless others. Pearl, of course, was fired. They haven't booked a world-class act since, and our current CAPC director wants to shut down our city's "Crown Jewel," aka, The AUD.

Ironically, the last sentence in that op-ed piece was a warning to Charlotte of the dangers of being a strong, creative, independent, out-of-the-box thinker in this town, and the dark forces that would try to bring her down, just like Pearl.

Ready, aim ... ouch!

The other irony, and the shot in the foot, is that just like the Domestic Partnership Registry hoopla, the controversy the council has created over The Artery, with help from the Christian Right, has allegedly caused busloads of Christians to cancel trips to Eureka for fear of seeing homos fornicating in the streets or depictions of incest and bestiality in every public space.

There is an economic and cultural panic in our town, and probably around most of the country. The businesses that depend on the Christian market should be concerned as long as this controversy they created, and continue to fan, persists.

As for the publicity the local art community is getting -- Priceless.

Art attack

Don't let the city bungle another great thing we've got going. This is not just an attack on Charlotte (though it is a personal attack by the mayor and council members), but an attack on the entire artist community and the people who support the arts and the vitality of our town.

Lest they forget, the artists and art supporters in this community spoke loud and eloquently in defense of Charlotte more than two months ago at a City Council meeting and were promised that The Artery, under Charlotte, James Yale and the artists involved, was a done deal.

So council, stop the procrastination. Deep down you know, or maybe you really don't, that putting an end to the Artery is tantamount to cutting off your nose to spite Charlotte. It's time to put the pressure on and act before our state Rep, Bryan King, comes up with a bill to ban all public art in Arkansas.

Shoot, I just gave the King of the right-wing nut jobs an idea.

-- John Rankine