🚀 go-pugleaf

Adam Jackson wrote:

> An Open Letter to the City, Mayor and City Council,
>  
>
> I am writing to express my support for the ELIMINATION of perhaps the
> most banal and pointless waste of taxpayer funds this city has
> perpetrated upon its citizens this decade - namely, the ridiculous,
> laughable and patently fraudulent so-called "Austin Music Network."
>
> Explain to me, please, exactly how it serves the city's interest to
> provide this subsidized TV mouthpiece for the Austin Chronicle.

If AMN was really just a 'mouthpiece for the Austin Chronicle', I would
expect them to have a _much_ better coverage of SXSW!

> Gee, I'm just so
> GRATEFUL that we're WAY behind on funding for police, emergency
> services, road repair, park maintenance and the like, JUST so we can
> see
> those hideously awful Stevie Ray Vaughan videos fifty times a day, or
> some no-name loser band's Steamboat show, or an aging Chronicle
> scenester hack plugging "gigs" for talentless, futureless alleged
> "musicians".

I guess you want your MTV and M2???

>  
>
> What's more, the idea that this "network" serves as some sort of
> "promotion" for local music is preposterous.  From what I've seen (and
>
> yes, I've watched) I'd suspect less than 10 percent of their
> programming
> actually consists of local acts.

From what I've seen (and yes I watch _regularly) It's about 50% local,
10%other texas, and the remainder natonal acts.

>  

(snip)

>  The Austin Music Network is, in fact, nothing more than
> city-sponsored ENDORSEMENT of a numerically insignificant subculture;
> a
> $300,000 trophy for Chronicle types proclaiming, "We Rule!"
>
> A few weeks ago, two people, a man and a woman, were kidnapped from a
> parking lot not three blocks away from the central police station. 
> The
> woman was brutally raped, but escaped with her life.  The man, a
> bright
> and promising future civic leader known personally by our Mayor,
> drowned
> to death in the trunk of a car, along with another promising,
> intelligent and objectively WORTHWHILE human being.  Taken together,
> these two people had the potential to contribute more to this
> community
> than the sum total of the entire music "scene" for the past fifty (or
> the NEXT fifty) years.  But no - they were horribly killed, and this
> poor woman, who's become almost forgotten in the aftermath, is scarred
>
> for life. I place the blame for this horrific atrocity squarely on the
>
> shoulders of irresponsible city leaders who, for some insane reason,
> consider providing the means for beer-swilling, dope-smoking,
> guitar-grubbing LOSERS to attain some paltry degree of local
> celebrity,
> more important than putting ENOUGH POLICE on our STREETS to create an
> INTIMIDATING PRESENCE for scumfuck CRIMINALS.  How many police
> officers
> could have been funded with the money that the city flushed down this
> toilet they like to call the "Austin Music Network"?  END OF
> DISCUSSION.

I believe that about 3.2 police officers can be funded (with training,
equipment, benifits, administration and salary) for $300,000.00 per
year, that is if I've followed the last 7 or 8 years budget processes
correctly.

>  
>
> The city staff who had the wisdom and level-headedness to GUT this
> STUPID experiment should recieve medals, commendations and a
> tickertape
> parade.

Betty Dunkerly (One of the truly responsible and caring members of
Austin City Staff, and largely responsible for the draft budget) is a
champion of AMN. She has said that she hopes the council will find the
funding for the channel.

> (snip)
>
> NOT ONE RED CENT OF OUR TAX DOLLARS FOR THE AUSTIN MUSIC NETWORK!!!

I guess you must be  _far _far_  left politically if all your cents are
'RED', but to think so would mean demeaning the socialist leanings of
many friends of mine.

The Austin Music Channel is one of the few things that remind me (at
least a little) of the way Austin _used_ to be. When I moved here in
1982, (and I still consider myself a newcomer) Austin was a much gentler
and friendlier place. Certianly there were problems and divisions and
fights, much as ther are now, but the general attitude was much less
polemic and ascerbic. Also, the logic in the arguments was so much more
cogent.